IC-NRLF 


ID? 


LIBRARY 


MAINE 
AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STA'I  ! 

ORONO,   MAINE 
CHAS.    D.    WOODS,    DIRECTOR. 


POULTRY  MANAGEMENT  AT  THE  MAINE 
STATION 


ORONO,   MAINE 
January,  1916. 


(HmbrrsitP  of 


MAINE 
AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION, 

ORONO,  MAINE. 
CHAS.  D.  WOODS,  Director. 


METHODS  OF  POULTRY  MANAGEMENT    AT 

THE   MAINE  AGRICULTURAL 

EXPERIMENT  STATION. 

(Revised  to  January,  1916.) 


RAYMOND  PEARL. 


ORONO,   MAINE. 
JANUARY,  1916. 


SFW 


AGRIC. 
CONTENTS.  UBRARY 


PAGE 

Introduction     3 

Poultry  Hygiene  and  Sanitation 3 

Poultry  House  Hygiene  and  Sanitation 4 

Hygienic    Feeding    9 

The  Land    12 

Exercise     14 

External    Parasites 14 

Disposal  of  Dead  Birds 14 

Isolation  of  Sickness 18 

The  Essentials  of   Poultry  Hygiene 18 

The  Selection  of  Breeding  Stock 19 

Raising  Chickens  by  Natural  Processes 21 

Raising  Chickens  by  Artificial   Processes 23 

The  Incubator   23 

The  Incubator  Room   24 

Brooder   Houses    26 

A   Fresh   Air   Brooder 28 

Construction  of  Fresh  Air  Brooder 33 

Treatment  of  Young  Chicks 36 

Feeds  and  Feeding  37 

Feeding    Young    Chickens 37 

Feeding  Chickens   on  the  Range 42 

The   Feeding  Trough    43 

An   Improved   Range  Feeding  Trough 44 

Feeding  the   Cockerels   for  Market 48 

Feeding  the  Laying  Pullets 51 

Feeding  the  Hens,  Cockerels  and  Cocks  Kept  Over  Winter 

for  Breeding  Purposes   56 

Green  Food  for  Poultry 57 

The  Preparation  of  Green  Sprouted  Oats '. . . .  59 

Housing  the  Hens    64 

The  Roosting  Closet  House 65 

The  Abandonment  of  the  Roosting  Closet 66 

Qurtain    Front    Houses 67 

Advantages  of  Curtain  Front  Houses 73 

The   Yards 75 

Lice    77 

Natural  Enemies  of  Poultry 83 

Trapnests    87 

The  Value,  Method  of  Preservation,  and  Economical  Use  of  Hen 

Manure    9i 

The  Maine  Station  Manure  Shed. 94 


METHODS   OF   POULTRY    MANAGEMENT   AT   THE 
MAINE  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION. 


INTRODUCTION. 

Many  years'  practical  experience  in  raising  and  keeping  poul- 
try and  investigations  in  poultry  breeding  at  the  Maine  Experi- 
ment Station  have  resulted  in  the  accumulation  of  a  considerable 
fund  of  information  on  poultry  management.  It  is  the  purpose 
of  the  following  pages  to  outline  this  experience  for  the  benefit 
of  poultry  keepers  and  thereby  to  help  them  to  discriminate 
between  some  of  the  wrong  theories  which  have  underlain  much 
of  the  common  practice  of  the  past  and  the  better  theories  which 
underlie  other  and  newer  methods  that  are  now  yielding  more 
satisfactory  results.  It  may  be  that  these  methods  are  no  better 
than  those  practiced  by  others,  but  the  attempt  is  made  to  state 
concisely  the  methods  which  have  been  or  are  now  being  suc- 
cessfully employed  at  the  Station. 

POULTRY  HYGIENK  AND  SANITATION. 

Second  in  importance  only  to  high  constitutional  vigor  and 
health  in  the  stock  is  attention  to  the  basic  rules  of  hygiene  and 
sanitation  in  the  management  of  poultry.  This  section  gives  an 
account  of  the  general  principles  involved  in  the  methods  of 
dealing  with  these  matters  practised  at  the  Maine  Agricultural 
Experiment  Station.  Attention  to  the  rules  and  principles  here 
set  forth  will  go  a  great  ways  towards  preventing  the  occur- 
rence of  disease.  This  does  not  mean  that  if  these  rules  are 
not  followed  disease  and  destruction  will  forthwith  result. 
Everyone  knows  of  plenty  of  instances  of  more  or  less  suc- 
cessful poultry  keeping  under  the  most  unsanitary  and  unhy- 
gienic of  conditions.  So  similarly  human  beings  are  able  when 

M154309 


OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

forced  to  do  so  to  live  under  unhygienic  conditions.  But  every 
civilized  country  in  the  world  believes  that  the  most  economical 
insurance  against  the  steady  loss  of  national  wealth  which  the 
prevalence  of  disease  involves  is  the  enforcement  of  sanitary 
regulations  throughout  its  domain.  In  poultry  keeping  many 
may  be  successful  for  a  time  in  managing  their  birds  in  defi- 
ance of  the  laws  of  sanitation  and  hygiene;  a  very  few  may 
be  successful  in  this  practice  for  a  long  time,  but  in  the  long 
run  the  vast  majority  will  find  that  thorough,  careful,  and  intel- 
ligent attention  to  these  laws  will  be  one  of  the  best  guarantees 
of  permanent  success  that  they  can  find. 

Poultry  hygiene  and  sanitation  will  be  considered  here  under 
seven  main  heads,  as  follows:  i.  Housing.  2.  Feeding. 
3.  The  Land.  4.  Exercise.  5.  External  Parasites.  6. 
Disposal  of  the  Dead.  7.  Isolation  of  Sickness.  What  is  said 
under  all  of  these  heads  is  intended  to  apply  (unless  a  specific 
statement  to  the  contrary  is  made)  both  to  adult  birds  and  to 
chicks.  No  discussion  of  the  hygiene  of  incubation,  or  of  the 
relative  merits  of  artificially  and  naturally  hatched  chickens  will 
be  undertaken  here,  because  there  are  special  subjects  falling 
outside  the  field  of  general  poultry  hygiene. 

I.      POULTRY  HOUSE:  HYGIENE  AND  SANITATION. 

A.  Cleanliness. — The  thing  of  paramount  importance  in  the 
hygienic  housing  of  poultry  is  cleanliness.  By  this  is  meant  not 
merely  plain,  ordinary  cleaning  up,  in  the  housewife  sense,  but 
also  bacteriological  cleaning  up;  that  is,  disinfection.  All  build- 
ings or  structures  of  whatever  kind  in  which  poultry  are  housed 
during  any  part  of  their  lives  should  be  subjected  to  a  most 
thorough  and  searching  cleaning  and  disinfection  once  every 
year.  This  cleaning  up  should  naturally  come  for  each  dif- 
ferent structure  (i.  e.,  laying,  colony  or  brooder  house,  indi- 
vidual brooder,  incubator,  etc.)  at  a  time  which  just  precedes 
the  putting  of  new  stock  into  this  structure. 

A  very  thorough  method  of  cleaning  a  poultry  house:  Not 
every  poultryman  knows  how  to  clean  a  poultry  house  thor- 
oughly. The  first  thing  to  do  is  to  remove  all  the  litter  and 
loose  dirt  which  can  be  shovelled  out.  Then  give  the  house — 
floor,  walls  and  ceiling — a  thorough  sweeping  and  shovel  out 


MAINE)    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  5 

the  accumulated  debris.  Then  play  a  garden  hose,  with  the 
maximum  water  pressure  which  can  be  obtained,  upon  floor, 
roosting  boards,  walls  and  ceiling,  until  all  the  dirt  which  washes 
down  easily  is  disposed  of.  Then  take  a  heavy  hoe  or  roost 
board  scraper  and  proceed  to  scrape  the  floor  and  roosting 
boards  clean  of  the  trampled  and  caked  manure  and  dirt, 
Then  shovel  out  what  has  been  accumulated  and  get  the  hose 
into  action  once  more  and  wash  the  whole  place  down  again 
thoroughly  and  follow  this  with  another  scraping.  With  a 
stiff  bristled  broom  thoroughly  scrub  walls,  floors,  nest  boxes, 
roost  boards,  etc.  Then  after  another  rinsing  down  and 
cleaning  out  of  accumulated  dirt,  let  the  house  dry  out  for  a 
day  or  two.  Then  make  a  searching  inspection  to  see  if  any 
dirt  can  be  discovered.  If  so  apply  the  appropriate  treatment 
as  outlined  above.  If.  however,  everything  appears  to  be 
clean,  the  time  has  come  to  make  it  really  clean  by  disinfection. 
To  do  this  it  is  necessary  to  spray,  or  thoroughly  wash  with  a 
scrub  brush  wet  in  the  solution  used,  all  parts  of  the  house  with 
a  good  disinfectant  at  least  twice,  allowing  time  between  for 
drying.  For  this  purpose  3  per  cent  cresol  solution  or  5  per 
cent  formalin  is  recommended.  The  chief  thing  is  to  use  an 
effective  disinfectant  and  plenty  of  it,  and  apply  it  at  least 
twice.  A  discussion  of  disinfectants  immediately  follows.  To 
complete  the  cleaning  of  the  house,  after  the  second  spraying  of 
disinfectant  is  dry  it  is  the  practise  at  this  Station  to  apply  a 
liquid  lice  killer  (made  by  putting  i  part  crude  carbolic  acid  or 
cresol  with  3  parts  kerosene)  liberally  to  nests  and  roosts  and 
nearby  walls.  After  all  this  is  done  the  house  will  be  clean.  In 
houses  cleaned  annually  in  this  way  the  first  step  is  taken 
towards  hygienic  poultry  keeping. 

The  same  principles  which  have  been  here  brought  out 
should  be  applied  in  cleaning  brooders,  brooder  houses,  and 
other  things  on  the  plant  with  which  the  birds  come  in  contact. 

What  has  been  said  has  reference  primarily  to  the  annual 
or  semi-annual  cleaning.  It  should  not  be  understood  by  this 
that  no  cleaning  is  to  be  done  at  any  other  time.  On  the  con- 
trary the  rule  should  be  to  keep  the  poultry  house  clean  at  all 
times,  never  allowing  filth  of  any  kind  to  accumulate  and 
using  plenty  of  disinfectant. 


6  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

Disinfection. — In  the  matter  of  disinfection  there  are  several 
options  open  to  the  poultryman.  He  may  make  his  own 
disinfectant,  or  he  may  purchase  proprietary  compounds,  or  he 
may  buy  a  .plain  disinfectant  like  formaldehyde,  or  carbolic 
acid. 

The  Maine  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  has  tried  various 
disinfectants  with  a  v'iew  to  rinding  the  most  useful,  when  the 
factors  of  efficiency,  ease  of  application  and  low  cost,  are  con- 
sidered. There  is  probably  no  more  effective  disinfectant  than 
formaldehyde.  The  only  objection  to  its  use  is  that  a  man 
may  find  it  difficult  to  withstand  the  fumes  long  enough  to 
spray  and  scrub  out  thoroughly  a  pen.  Formaldehyde  is  very 
good  where  it  can  be  used,  and  there  is  no  cheaper  disinfectant, 
efficiency  considered.  The  formaldehyde  gas  method  for  disin- 
fecting poultry  houses  has  recently  been  advocated,  using  the 
permanganate  method  of  generating.  This,  however,  is  indi- 
cated only  for  rooms  which  can  easily  be  closed  up  air  tight. 
It  costs  too  much  in  time  and  trouble  to  make  any  form  of 
"fresh  air"  poultry  house  even  moderately  air  tight.  The  for- 
maldehyde gas  method  is  well  adapted  to  disinfecting  and 
fumigating  feed  rooms,  incubator  cellars,  brooder  houses  and 
all  houses  which  can  be  readily  made  air  tight.  For  the  benefit 
of  those  who  wish  to  use  the  method  for  such  purposes  the 
following  directions  are  given.  This  will  give  a  very  strong 
fumigation  and  disinfection,  but  such  is  indicated  about  poul- 
try establishments. 

Formaldehyde  Gas  Disinfection:  First  make  the  room  as 
tight  as  possible  by  stopping  cracks,  key-holes,  etc.,  with  pieces 
of  cloth  or  similar  substance.  Use  a  metal  or  earthern  dish  for 
a  generator,  of  sufficient  size  so  that  the  liquid  will  not  spatter 
or  boil  over  on  the  floor,  since  the  permanganate  will  stain. 
The  temperature  of  the  room  should  not  be  below  50°  F.  and 
more  effective  disinfection  will  be  obtained  if  the  temperature 
is  80°  F.  or  above  at  the  beginning.  Sprinkle  boiling  water 
on  the  floor  or  place  a  kettle  of  boiling  water  in  the  room  to 
create  a  moist  atmosphere.  Spread  the  permanganate  evenly 
over  the  bottom  of  the  dish  and  quickly  pour  in  the  formalde- 
hyde (40  per  cent  strength  as  purchased).  Leave  and  tightly 
close  the  room  at  once  and  allow  to  remain  closed  for  4-6 
hours  or  longer,  then  air  thoroughly."  Use  23  ounces  of  per- 


MAINE  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION.  7 

manganate  and  j  pints  of  formaldehyde  to  each  1000  cubic  feet 
of  space. 

For  general  disinfecting  purposes  about  a  poultry  plant  the 
Station  has  found  one  of  the  cheapest  and  most  effective  disin- 
fectants to  be  compound  cresol  solution.  This  is  used  here 
for  spraying  and  disinfecting  the  houses  after  they  are  cleaned, 
disinfecting  brooders,  brooder  houses,  incubators,  nests  and 
everything  else  about  the  plant  which  can  be  disinfected  with  a 
liquid  substance.  Any  person  can  easily  make  this  disinfectant. 
The  following  revised  directions  for  its  manufacture  are  quoted 
from  Bulletin  179  of  the  Maine  Agricultural  Experiment  Sta- 
tion. 

Cresol  Disinfectant. — The  active  base  of  cresol  soap  disin- 
fecting solution  is  commercial  cresol.  This  is  a  thick,  sirupy 
fluid  varying  in  color  in  different  lots  from  a  nearly  colorless 
fluid  to  a  dark  brown.  It  does  not  mix  readily  with  water,  and, 
therefore,  in  order  to  make  a  satisfactory  dilute  solution,  it  is 
necessary  first  to  incorporate  the  cresol  with  some  substance 
like  soap  which  will  mix  with  water  and  will  carry  the  cresol 
over  into  the  mixture.  The  commercial  cresol  as  it  is  obtained, 
is  a  corrosive  substance,  being  in  this  respect  not  unlike  car- 
bolic acid.  It  should,  of  course,  be  handled  with  great  care  and 
the  pure  cresol  should  not  be  allowed  to  come  in  contact  with 
the  skin.  If  it  does  so  accidentally  the  spot  should  be  imme- 
diately washed  off  with  plenty  of  clean  water.  The  price  of 
commercial  cresol  varies  with  the  drug  market. 

Measure  out  3  1-5  quarts  of  raw  linseed  oil  in  a  4  or  5  gallon 
stone  crock;  then  weigh  out  in  a  dish  i  Ib.  6  oz.  of  commercial 
lye  or  "Babbit's  potash."  Dissolve  this  lye  in  as  little  water  as 
will  completely  dissolve  it.  Start  with  1-2  pint  of  water,  and  if 
this  will  not  dissolve  all  the  lye,  add  more  water  slowly.  Let 
this  stand  for  at  least  3  hours  until  the  lye  is  completely  dis- 
solved and  the  solution  is  cold;  then  add  the  cold  lye  solution 
very  slowly  to  the  linseed  oil,  stirring  constantly.  Not  less  than 
5  minutes  should  be  taken  for  the  adding  of  this  solution  of 
lye  to  the  oil.  After  the  lye  is  added  continue  the  stirring  until 
the  mixture  is  in  the  condition  and  has  the  texture  of  a  smooth 
homogeneous  liquid  soap.  This  ought  not  to  take  more  than  a 
half  hour.  Then  while  the  soap  is  in  this  liquid  state,  and  be- 
fore it  has  a  chance  to  harden  add,  with  constant  stirring,  8  1-2 


8  METHODS    OF    POULTRY     MANAGEMENT. 

quarts  of  commercial  cresol.  The  cresol  will  blend  perfectly 
with  the  soap  solution  and  make  a  clear,  dark  brown  fluid.  The 
resulting  solution  will  mix  in  any  proportion  with  water  and 
yield  a  clear  solution. 

Cresol  soap  is  an  extremely  powerful  disinfectant.  In  the 
Station  poultry  plant  for  general  purposes  of  disinfecting  the 
houses,  brooder  houses,  incubators,  nests,  and  other  wood  work, 
it  should  be  used  in  a  3  per  cent  solution  with  water.  Two  or  3 
tablespoons  full  of  the  cresol  soap  to  each  gallon  of  water  will 
make  a  satisfactory  solution.  This  solution  may  be  applied 
through  any  kind  of  spray  pump  or  with  a  brush.  Being  a  clear 
watery  fluid  it  can  be  used  in  any  spray  pump  without  difficulty. 
For  disinfecting  brooders  or  incubators  which  there  is  reason 
to  believe  have  been  particularly  liable  to  infection  with  the 
germs  of  white  diarrhea  or  other  diseases  the  cresol  may  be 
used  in  double  the  strength  given  above  and  applied  with  a 
scrub  brush  in  addition  to  the  spray. 

B.  Fresh  Air  and  Light. — Too  great  stress  cannot  be  laid  on 
the  importance  of  plenty  of  fresh  air  in  the  poultry  house  if  the 
birds  are  to  keep  in  good  condition.  And  it  must  be  remem- 
bered in  this  connection  that  "fresh"  air,  and  cold  stagnant  air 
are  two  very  different  things.  Too  many  of  the  types  of  curtain 
front  and  so-called  "fresh  air"  houses  now  in  use  are  without 
any  provision  other  than  an  obliging  southerly  wind,  to  insure 
the  circulation  or  changing  of  air  within  the  house.  Even  with 
an  open  front  house  it  is  wise  to  provide  for  a  circulation  of 
air  in  such  way  that  direct  drafts  cannot  strike  the  birds.  This 
applies  not  only  to  the  housing  of  adult  birds  in  laying  houses, 
but  also  to  the  case  of  young  stock  in  colony  houses  on  the 
range.  Further  a  circulation  of  fresh  air  under  the  hover  in 
artificial  rearing  is  greatly  to  be  desired  and  will  have  a  marked 
effect  on  the  health  and  vigor  of  the  chicks. 

Not  only  should  the  poultry  house  be  such  as  to  furnish 
plenty  of  fresh  air,  but  it  should  also  be  light.  The  prime  im- 
portance of  sunlight  in  sanitation  is  universally  recognized  by 
medical  authorities.  Disease  germs  cannot  stand  prolonged 
exposure  to  the  direct  rays  of  the  sun.  Sunlight  is  Nature's 
great  disinfectant.  Its  importance  is  no  less  in  poultry  than  in 
human  sanitation.  The  following  statement  made  some  years 
ago  (1904)  by  a  writer  signing  himself  "M"  in  Farm  Poultry 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  9 

(Vol.  15)  brings  home  in  a  few  words  the  importance  of  hav- 
ing plenty  of  light  in  the  poultry  house. 

"Light  in  the  poultry  house  has  been  found  by  the  writer  a 
great  help  in  keeping  the  house  clean  .and  keeping  the  fowls 
healthy.  Probably  there  is  no  greater  assistance  to  the  diseases 
of  poultry  than  dark  and  damp  houses,  and  dark  houses  are 
frequently  damp.  In  recent  years  I  have  had  both  kinds  of 
experience,  those  with  the  hens  confined  in  a  large,  dry  and  light 
house,  and  with  hens  confined  in  a  dark  house  in  which  a  sin- 
gle window  looking  towards  the  setting  sun  furnished  the  only 
light.  Being  forced  to  use  the  latter  building  for  an  entire 
winter  I  found  it  impossible  to  get  it  thoroughly  dried  out  after 
a  rain  had  rendered  the  walls  damp.  By  spring  some  of  the 
fowls  that  had  been  confined  there  began  to  die  of  a  mysteri- 
ous disease  and  a  post-mortem  examination  showed  it  to  be 
liver  disease.  Later  the  roup  broke  out  in  the  same  house  and 
this  dread  disease  continued  with  the  flock  for  months  exacting 
a  heavy  toll  in  laying  hens." 

C.  Avoid    Dampness.      Of    all    unfavorable    environmental 
conditions    into   which   poultry  may,   by  bad   management,   be 
brought,   a  damp  house  is  probably  the  worst.     Nothing  will 
diminish  the  productivity  of  a  flock  so  quickly  and  surely  as 
will  dampness  in  the  house,  and  nothing  is  so  certain  and  speedy 
an  excitant  to  roup  and  kindred  ills.     The  place  where  poultry 
are  housed  must  be  kept  dry  if  the  flock  is  to  be  productive 
and  free  from  disease. 

D.  Provide  Clean  and  Dry  Litter.    Experience  has  demon- 
strated that  the  best  way  in  which  to  give  fowls  exercise  during 
the  winter  months  in  which,  in  northern  climates  at  least,  they 
must  be  housed  the  greater  part  if  not  all  of  the  time,  is  by 
providing  a  deep  litter  in  which  the  birds  scratch  for  their  dry 
grain  ration.     For  this  litter  the  Experiment  Station  uses  pine 
planer  shavings  with  a  layer  of  oat  straw  on  top.    Whatever  the 
litter  it  should  be  changed  as  often  as  it  gets  damp  or  dirty. 

n.     HYGIENIC  FEEDING. 

Along  with  housing  as  a  prime  factor  in  poultry  sanitation 
goes  feeding.  This  is  not  the  place  to  enter  upon  a  detailed 
discussion  of  the  compounding  of  rations  and  such  topics. 


IO  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

These  matters  are  considered  farther  on  in  this  circular  (see 
pages  39-64).  There  are,  however,  certain  basic  principles  of 
hygienic  feeding  which  must  always  be  looked  after  if  one  is  to 
avoid  diseases.  These  are : 

A.  Purity.     It  should  be  a  rule  of  every  poultryman  never, 
to  feed  any  material  which  it  not  clean  and  wholesome.    Musty 
and  mouldy  grain,  tainted  meat  scraps  or  cut  bone,  table  scraps 
which  have   spoiled,  and   decayed   fruits   or  vegetables  should 
never  be  fed.     If  this  consideration  were  always  kept  in  mind 
many  cases  of  undiagnosed  sickness  and  deaths,  and  low  condi- 
tion in  the  stock  would  be  avoided.     Keep  all  utensils  in  which 
food  is  placed  clean. 

B.  Avoid  Overfeeding.     Intensive  poultry  keeping  involves 
of   necessity  heavy   feeding,  but  one  should  constantly  be  on 
the  lookout  to  guard  against  overfeeding,  which  puts  the  bird 
into  a  state  of  lowered  vitality  in  which  its  natural  powers  of 
resistance  to  all  forms  of  infectious  and  other  diseases  are  re- 
duced.   The  feeding  of  high  protein  concentrates  like  linseed  or 
cotton  seed  meal  needs  to  be  particularly  carefully  watched  in 
this  respect. 

C.  Provide  Plenty  of  Green  Food.     Under  natural  condi- 
tions poultry  are  free  eaters  of  green  grass  and  other  plants. 
Such  green  food  supplies  a  definite  need  in  metabolism,  the 
place  of  which  can  be  taken  by  no  other  sort  of  food  material. 
It  is  not  enough   merely  to  supply  succulence  in   the   ration. 
Fowls  need  a  certain  amount  of  succulent  food,  but  they  also 
need  fresh  green  food.    It  is  desirable  to  provide  for  a  succes- 
sion of  green  food  throughout  the  year.     The  succession  fol- 
lowed at  the  Maine  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  is  as  fol- 
lows: 

Beginning  in  the  early  fall  when  the  pullets  are  put  in  the 
laying  house  they  are  given  green  corn  fodder  cut  fine  in  a 
fodder  cutter.  Stalks,  leaves  and  ears  are  cut  together  in 
pieces  averaging  about  1-2  inch  in  length.  The  birds  eat  this 
chopped  corn  fodder  greedily.  It  is  one  of  the  best  green  foods 
for  poultry  that  we  have  as  yet  been  able  to  find.  Its  useful- 
ness is  limited  only  by  the  season  within  which  it  is  possible  to 
get  it.  The  feeding  of  corn  fodder  is  continued  until  the  frost 
kills  the  plants. 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  II 

When  the  corn  can  no  longer  be  used  cabbage  is  fed.  The 
supply  of  this  usually  lasts  through  December.  In  the  event 
of  the  supply  of  cabbage  failing  before  it  is  desirable  to  start 
the  oat  sprouter  (see  p.  59)  the  interval  is  filled  out  by  the 
use  of  mangolds.  From  about  January  15  to  May  15  green 
sprouted  oats  grown  as  described  below  (pp.  59-64)  form  the 
source  of  green  food.  From  about  May  15  until  the  corn  has 
grown  enough  to  cut,  fresh  clover  from  the  range  is  used.  Dur- 
ing the  summer  the  growing  chicks  on  the  range  are  given  rape 
(Dwarf  Essex)  and  green  corn  fodder  cut,  as  described  above 
to  supplement  the  grass  of  the  range,  which  rather  rapidly  dries 
out  and  becomes  worthless  as  a  source  of  green  food  under  our 
conditions.  The  very  young  chicks  in  the  brooders  are  given  the 
tops  only  of  green  sprouted  oats  chopped  up  fine. 

D.  Provide  Fresh  and  Clean  Drinking  Water.  The  most 
sure  and  rapid  method  by  which  infectious  diseases  of  all  kinds 
are  transmitted  through  a  flock  of  birds  is  by  means  of  the 
water  pail  from  which  they  all  drink  in  common.  Furthermore 
the  water  itself  may  come  from  a  contaminated  source  and  be 
the  origin  of  infection  to  the  flock.  Finally  it  is  difficult  to  de- 
vise any  satisfactory  drinking  fountain  in  which  the  water  is 
not  liable  to  contamination  from  litter,  manure,  etc.  All  these 
considerations  indicate  the  advisability  of  adding  to  all  drinking 
water  which  is  given  to  poultry  some  substance  which  shall  act 
as  a  harmless  antiseptic.  The  best  of  all  such  substances  yet 
discovered  for  use  with  poultry  is  potassium  permanganate. 
This  is  a  dark  reddish-purple  crystalline  substance  which  can 
be  bought  of  any  druggist.  It  ought  never  to  cost  more  than 
2OC-3OC  per  pound  and  a  pound  will  last  for  a  long  time.  It 
should  be  used  in  the  following  way :  In  the  bottom  of  a  large 
mouthed  jar,  bottle  or  can,  put  a  layer  of  potassium  permanga- 
nate crystals  an  inch  thick.  Fill  up  the  receptacle  with  water. 
This  water  will  dissolve  all  of  the  crystals  that  it  is  able  to. 
This  will  make  a  stock  saturated  solution.  As  this  solution  is 
used  add  more  water  and  more  crystals  as  needed,  always  aim- 
ing to  keep  a  layer  of  undissolved  crystals  at  the  bottom.  Keep 
a  dish  of  stock  solution  like  this  alongside  the  faucet  or  pump 
where  the  water  is  drawn  for  the  poultry.  Whenever  any  ivater 
is  drawn  for  either  chicks  or  adult  fowls  at  the  Maine  Agri- 
cultural Experiment  Station  enough  of  the  stock  solution  is 


12  METHODS    OF    POUI/TRY    MANAGEMENT. 

added  to  give  the  water  a  rather  deep  -wine  color.  This  means 
for  some  4  years  past  no  bird  has  ever  had  a  drink  of  water 
from  the  time  it  was  hatched  which  did  not  contain  potassium 
permanganate,  except  such  water  as  it  got  from  mud  puddles 
and  the  like. 

III.      TH£  LAND. 

One  of  the  most  important  considerations  in  poultry  sani- 
tation is  to  keep  the  ground  on  which  the  birds  are  to  live,  both 
as  chicks  and  as  adults,  from  becoming  foul  and  contaminated. 
This  is  not  a  very  difficult  thing  to  do  if  one  has  enough  land 
and  practices  a  definite  and  systematic  crop  rotation  in  which 
poultry  form  one  element.  On  the  open  range  where  chicks 
are  raised  a  four  year  rotation  is  operated  at  the  Maine  Agri- 
cultural Experiment  Station  and  serves  its  purpose  well.  This 
system  of  cropping  is  as  follows :  First  year,  chickens ;  second 
year,  a  hoed  crop,  such  as  beets,  cabbage,  mangolds  or  corn; 
third  year,  seed  down  to  timothy  and  clover,  using  oats  or  bar- 
ley as  a  nurse  crop;  fourth  year,  chickens  again.  Other  crop- 
ping systems  to  serve  the  same  purpose  can  easily  be  devised, 
i  to  2  teaspoons  of  the  stock  solution  to  10  quarts  of  water. 
At  the  same  time  one  should  clean  and  disinfect  the  drinking 
pails  and  fountains  regularly,  just  as  he  would  if  he  were  not 
using  potassium  permanganate.  At  the  Maine  Station  plant 

To  maintain  the  runs  connected  with  a  permanent  poultry 
house,  where  adult  birds  are  kept,  in  a  sweet  and  clean  condition 
is  a  more  difficult  problem.  About  the  best  that  one  can  do 
here  is  to  arrange  alternate  sets  of  runs  so  that  one  set  may  be 
used  one  year  and  the  other  set  the  next,  purifying  the  soil  so 
far  as  may  be  by  annually  plowing  and  harrowing  thoroughly 
and  planting  exhaustive  crops.  Failing  the  possibility  of  alter- 
nating in  this  way,  disinfection  and  frequent  plowing  are  the 
only  resources  left. 

The  following  excellent  advice  on  this  subject  is  given  by  the 
English  poultry  expert  Mr.  E.  T.  Brown  (Farm  Poultry,  Vol. 
18,  p.  294)  :  "Tainted  ground  is  responsible  for  many  of  the 
diseases  from  which  fowls  suffer,  and  yet  it  is  a  question  that 
rarely  receives  the  attention  it  deserves.  The  chief  danger  of 
tainted  soil  arises  when  fowls  are  kept  in  confinement,  but  still 
we  often  find  that  even  with  those  at  liberty  the  land  over  which 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  13 

they  are  running  is  far  from  pure.  So  long  as  the  grass  can  be 
kept  growing  strongly  and  vigorously  there  is  small  fear  of  foul 
ground,  as  the  growth  absorbs  the  manure;  it  is  when  the  grass 
becomes  worn  away  that  the  chief  danger  arises.  The  manure 
constantly  falling  upon  the  same  small  area,  and  there  being 
nothing  to  use  it  up,  the  land  is  bound  in  a  short  space  of  time 
to  become  so  permeated  as  to  be  thoroughly  unfit  for  fowls. 
The  question  is  very  often  asked  in  connection  with  this  subject 
as  to  how  many  fowls  a  certain  sized  piece  of  land  will  accom- 
modate the  whole  year  through.  Occasionally  one  may  see  in 
some  of  the  agricultural  or  poultry  journals  this  question  an- 
swered, but  as  a  matter  of  fact  to  give  any  stated  number  is 
most  misleading.  It  depends  very  largely  upon  the  class  of  soil, 
as  some  can  carry  twice  as  many  birds  as  others;  it  depends 
upon  the  breed  of  poultry,  some  being  much  more  active  than 
others,  and  thus  requiring  more  space ;  it  depends,  too,  upon  the 
time  of  year,  because  during  the  spring  and  summer,  when  there 
is  an  abundance  of  vegetable  growth  in  the  soil,  a  considerably 
larger  number  of  birds  can  be  maintained  than  during  the 
autumn  or  winter.  The  number  must  be  varied  according  to 
these  circumstances,  and  no  hard  and  fast  rule  is  applicable." 
"The  results  of  tainted  ground  are  generally  quickly  notice- 
able, as  the  fowls  have  a  sickly  apearance,  the  feathers  lose 
their  brilliant  lustre,  and  the  wings  begin  to  droop.  Roup, 
gapes,  and  other  ailments  speedily  show  themselves,  causing,  if 
not  death  itself,  considerable  loss  and  unpleasantness.  One  of 
the  greatest  advantages  to  be  derived  from  portable  houses  is 
that  they  so  greatly  reduce  the  risk  of  tainted  ground,  as  they 
are  being  constantly  moved  from  one  place  to  another,  thus 
evenly  distributing  the  manure.  When  it  is  remembered  that 
each  adult  fowl  drops  nearly  a  hundred  weight  of  manure  in 
the  course  of  a  year,  the  importance  of  this  question  will  be 
immediately  realized.  It  is  quite  possible,  however,  provided 
that  suitable  precautions  are  taken,  to  keep  a  comparatively 
small  run  pure  for  a  long  time.  If  the  grass  is  short  it  should 
be  occasionally  swept,  in  this  manner  removing  a  good  deal  of 
the  manure.  Another  important  point  is  to  always  have  around 
the  house  a  space  of  gravel,  upon  which  the  birds  should  be 
fed,  and  if  swept  once  or  twice  a  week  this  will  have  a  wonder- 
ful effect  in  preserving  the  purity  of  the  grass  portion.  Anyone 


14  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

who  has  observed  poultry  will  know  how  fond  they  are  of  con- 
stantly being  near  the  house,  and  thus  the  greater  portion  of 
their  droppings  falls  within  its  immediate  vicinity.  The  shape 
of  the  run  also  has  a  great  bearing  upon  the  length  of  time  it 
will  remain  untainted,  a  long  narrow  run  being  much  superior 
to  a  square  one.  I  have  proved  by  my  own  experience  how 
true  this  is,  and  probably  a  long  and  narrow  run,  containing 
the  same  amount  of  space  will  remain  pure  twice  as  long.  It  is 
unnecessary  here  to  go  into  a  full  explanation  of  why  this  is 
so,  but  I  may  state  the  fact,  which  I  am  confident  is  quite  cor- 
rect. If  the  space  at  one's  disposal  is  very  limited  it  is  a  good 
plan  to  divide  it  into  two  equal  parts,  placing  the  house  in  the 
middle.  During  one  year  one-half  would  be  available  for  the 
fowls,  the  other  being  planted  with  some  quickly  growing 
vegetables,  the  order  being  reversed  the  year  following.  The 
vegetable  growth  has  the  effect  of  quickly  using  up  the  manure, 
and  in  this  manner  quite  a  small  plot  of  land  can  be  heavily 
stocked  with  poultry  for  an  unlimited  number  of  years." 

iv.    EXERCISE. 

If  poultry  are  to  be  in  good  condition,  and  maintain  their 
normal  resistance  to  disease  they  must  exercise.  As  chicks  they 
will  do  this  on  the  range.  As  adults  (in  climates  like  that  of 
Maine)  the  most  feasible  way  to  bring  this  about  is  to  provide 
litter  and  make  the  birds  scratch  for  their  feed. 

V.      EXTERNAL  PARASITES. 

In  hygienic  poultry  keeping  the  birds  must  be  kept  reasonably 
free  at  all  times  of  lice,  mites,  and  all  other  forms  of  external 
parasites.  The  methods  of  dealing  with  this  matter  in  use  at 
this  Station  are  given  in  detail  farther  on.  It  is  desired  here 
merely  to  call  attention  to  the  matter  as  one  of  the  general  prin- 
ciples of  hygienic  poultry  management. 

VI.      DISPOSAL    OF  DEAD    BIRDS. 

On  every  poultry  plant  and  -around  every  farm  there  are 
bound  to  occur  from  time  to  time  a  greater  or  less  number  of 
deaths  of  chickens  and  adult  fowls  from  disease  or  other  natural 
causes.  The  disposal  of  these  dead  bodies  offers  a  problem  to 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  15 

the  poultryman,  the  correct  solution  of  which  may  in  many 
cases  become  a  very  important  matter.  This  is  especially  true 
in  the  case  of  death  from  contagious  diseases,  which  include 
a  considerable  proportion  of  the  deaths  of  poultry  generally. 
The  method  usually  practiced  by  the  farmer  and  poultryman 
for  the  disposition  of  dead  carcasses  is  unsanitary  in  the  ex- 
treme. To  throw  the  dead  bodies  on  the  manure  pile  is  to  invite 
the  spread  of  disease  on  the  plant.  Burying  is  far  from  being 
a  satisfactory  way  of  dealing  with  the  matter  for  two  reasons. 
Unless  the  grave  is  dug  deep,  which  costs  a  good  deal  of  time 
and  labor,  there  is  considerable  likelihood  that  dogs  or  other 
marauding  animals  will  dig  out  the  carcasses,  and,  after  feeding 
on  them,  scatter  the  remains  around  on  the  top  of  the  ground. 
Furthermore,  burying  cannot  be  resorted  to  at  all  during  the 
winter  months  when  the  ground  is  frozen. 

The  only  really  sanitary  method  of  dealing  with  dead  bodies 
is  to  incinerate  them.  The  difficulty  of  following  this  plan  in 
practice  is  that  the  farmer  or  poultryman  usually  does  not  have 
any  suitable  source  of  heat  ready  at  hand  at  all  times.  To  be 
sure,  during  certain  seasons  of  the  year,  those  poultrymen  who 
employ  large  brooder  houses  with  a  hot  water  heating  system 
have  a  furnace  in  operation,  and  the  dead  chicks  can  be  burned 
up  in  the  furance.  This,  however,  covers  only  a  part  of  the 
year.  At  other  times  resort  must  be  had  to  burying  or  some 
other  means  of  disposal,  as  the  poultryman  is  not  likely  to  fire 
up  a  large  furnace  for  the  sake  of  burning  a  few  dead  birds. 

At  the  Station  plant  it  was  felt  to  be  desirable  to  have  a  small 
crematory  conveniently  located,  and  so  easy  and  economical  of 
operation  that  dead  birds  could  be  disposed  of  immeditely,  with 
a  minimum  amount  of  trouble  and  labor.  To  meet  this  require- 
ment there  was  devised  the  small  crematory  here  described. 
The  construction  was  carried  out  with  the  idea  of  keeping  the 
first  cost  as  low  as  possible,  in  order  that  there  should  be  nothing 
about  it  which  any  poultryman  or  farmer  could  not  easily  afford 
to  duplicate.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  cost  of  materials  for  the 
crematory  here  described  was  less  than  ten  dollars.  The  labor 
was  done  by  the  poultryman  and  his  assistant  at  odd  times, 
when  an  hour  or  two  could  be  spared  for  this  work.  The  result 
is  therefore,  not  beyond  the  reach  of  any  poultryman  or  farmer. 
At  the  same  time  the  crematory  is  so  satisfactory  in  operation 


l6  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

that  anyone  who  builds  one  will  wonder,  after  he  has  completed 
and  used  it  for  a  time,  why  he  did  not  long  before  have  so 
simple  and  sanitary  an  adjunct  to  his  plant. 

The  crematory  shown  in  Figure  I  is  very  simple  in  construc- 
tion. It  consists  essentially  of  a  cement  base  or  fire  box,  bear- 
ing on  its  top  a  series  of  grate  bars  which  are  in  turn  covered 
by  a  cremating  box  or  oven  in  which  the  material  to  be  incin- 
erted  is  placed. 

The  crematory  here  described  is  sufficiently  large  to  take 
care  of  all  the  needs  of  a  plant  carrying  1000  head  of  adult 
stock,  raising  3000  to  4000  chickens  annually,  and  in  which  a 
good  deal  of  anatomical  and  physiological  research  is  going  on, 
necessitating  a  much  larger  amount  of  waste  animal  material 
than  the  ordinary  commercial  poultryman  would  have.  There- 
fore, it  is  doubtful  if  it  would  be  necessary  in  any  but  the  very 
largest  commercial  plants  to  build  a  larger  crematory  than  the 
one  here  described. 

In  building  this  an  excavation  was  first  made  for  the  base, 
in  which  a  lot  of  loose  stones  and  gravel  were  placed,  in  order 
to  secure  adequate  drainage  below  the  cement.  On  top  of  this 
the  cement  base  and  fire  box  were  made. 

This  base  consists  essentially  of  a  rectangular  box  made  of 
cement  open  at  the  top,  and  with  a  small  opening  in  front 
through  which  the  fire  is  fed  and  which  serves  as  a  draught. 
The  walls  are  about  6  inches  thick.  The  outside  dimensions  of 
the  fire  box  base  are  3  feet,  4  inches  by  2  feet,  6  inches.  The 
inside  dimensions  of  the  fire  box  are  2  feet,  3  inches  by  I  foot, 
91-2  inches  by  I  foot,  4  inches.  Across  the  top  of  the  fire  box 
there  were  laid,  while  the  cement  was  still  soft,  some  old  grate 
bars  from  a  small  steam  boiler,  which  had  been  discarded  and 
thrown  on  the  dump  heap.  These  were  set  close  together  and 
held  firmly  in  place  when  the  cement  hardened.  They  form  the 
grate  on  which  the  material  to  be  incinerated  is  thrown.  These 
old  boiler  grate  bars,  besides  costing  nothing,  had  another  ad- 
vantage ;  namely  that  of  their  thickness  and  weight.  When  they 
become  thoroughly  heated  from  the  fire  below  they  will  hold  the 
heat  for  a  considerable  time  charring  and  burning  the  animal 
material  above. 


MAJN1C    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  I/ 


Fig.  i.  Photograph  of  crematory  described  in  text.  Note  cement 
base,  with  opening  in  front  into  fire  box;  galvanized  iron  cremating 
box  on  top;  cover  of  cremating  box. 

The  incinerating  chamber  proper  was  made  from  galvanized 
iron  by  a  local  tinsmith.  This  consists  of  a  rectangular  box 
having  the  following  dimensions:  Length  2  feet,  2  inches; 
width  i  foot,  10  inches;  height  i  foot,  6  inches.  In  the  top  of 
this  is  cut  a  round  hole,  12  inches  in  diameter  which  is  pro- 
tected by  a  hinged  cover  15  inches  by  14  1-2  inches.  This 
galvanized  box  has  no  bottom.  It  is  placed  on  top  of  the  grate 
bars,  and  held  firmly  in  place  by  cement  worked  up  around  its 
lower  edges.  At  the  back  end  of  this  iron  cremating  box  is  an 
opening  for  a  stove  pipe,  which  is  necessary  in  order  to  give  the 
proper  draught.  It  is  found  in  practice  that  only  a  short  piece 
of  stove  pipe  is  necessary  to  get  sufficient  draught  to  make  a 
very  hot  fire,  which  entirely  consumes  the  birds  in  a  few  hours. 
2 


l8  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

The  funnel  may  best  be  left  removable  so  that  when  the  crema- 
tory is  not  in  use  it  can  be  taken  off  and  stored  inside  the 
wooden  box  (which  then  sets  over  the  galvanized  iron  portion 
to  protect  it  from  the  weather. 

It  is  important  in  locating  a  crematory  of  this  kind  to  plan 
matters  so  that  there  will  be  good  drainage  from  around  it. 
In  particular  pains  should  be  taken  to  insure  that  water  does 
not  run  into  the  firebox  and  freeze  during  the  winter. 

In  operation  the  apparatus  works  as  follows:  Dead  birds 
are  thrown  into  the  incinerating  chamber  through  the  opening 
in  the  top  and  the  lid  closed  while  a  wood  fire  is  burning  in  the 
fire  box  below.  The  aim  should  be  to  use  dry  wood  and  get  a 
quick  and  very  hot  fire.  This  first  roasts  the  material  and  then 
chars  it,  and  finally  reduces  it  to  fine  ashes. 

VII.      ISOLATION    OF    SICKNESS. 

Whether  one  expects  to  treat  the  bird  or  to  kill  it,  every  indi- 
vidual that  shows  signs  of  sickness  should  be  removed  from  the 
general  flock.  When  the  bird  has  been  isolated  a  decision  as  to 
what  will  be  done  about  the  case  can  be  reached  at  leisure,  and 
in  the  meantime  the  flock  is  not  subjected  to  the  danger  of  in- 
fection. This  is  an  important  matter  with  young  chickens  as 
well  as  with  adult  stock. 

The  general  subject  of  the  diagnosis,  etiology  and  treatment 
of  poultry  diseases  is  not  discussed  in  the  present  work.  Those 
desiring  information  regarding  these  matters  should  consult  the 
book  on  this  subject  prepared  by  the  present  writer  and  his 
associates.* 

THE)   ESSENTIALS   OF  POULTRY    HYGIENE. 

To  summarize  this  discussion  of  poultry  hygiene  and  sanita- 
tion it  may  be  said  that  the  essentials  in  the  hygienic  and  sani- 
tary management  of  poultry  are 

1.  CLEAN  HOUSES. 

2.  CLEAN  AIR. 

Pearl,  Surface,  and  Curtis.  The  Diseases  of  Poultry.  New  York, 
(published  by  the  Macmillan  Co.)  1915. 


MAINE  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION.  19 

3.  CLEAN  FOOD. 

4.  CLEAN  WATER. 

5.  CLEAN  YARDS  AND  CLEAN  RANGE. 

6.  CLEAN  INCUBATORS  AND  BROODERS. 

7.  CLEAN  BIRDS,  OUTSIDE  AND  IXSIDE. 

THE  SELECTION  OF  BREEDING  STOCK. 

At  the  Maine  Agricultural  Experiment  Station  the  poultry 
plant  is  conducted  for  purely  experimental  purposes  in  connec- 
tion with  the  study  of  the  principles  of  breeding.  On  that  ac- 
count the  considerations  which  determine  the  choice  of  birds 
to  go  into  the  breeding  pens  are  somewhat  different  to  what 
they  would  be  in  a  purely  commercial  plant.  It  will  therefore 
be  advisable  to  discuss  here  only  those  general  guiding  princi- 
ples in  regard  to  the  selection  of  breeding  stock,  which  the  ex- 
perience of  this  Station  has  demonstrated  to  be  of  fundamen- 
tal importance  in  building  up  an  economically  productive 
strain  of  poultry. 

Whatever  the  object  of  the  breeder,  whether  egg  production, 
table  fowl  production,  or  the  fancy,  the  first  selection  of 
breeding  stock  should  be  for  constitutional  vigor  and  vitality. 
No  bird  which  shows  the  slightest  sign  of  weakness  or  lack  of 
vigor  should  be  used  as  a  breeder.  The  selection  for  constitu- 
tional vigor  should  begin  at  a  very  early  age  and  be  continued 
until  the  pens  are  mated.  It  is  a  great  mistake  to  leave  the 
whole  of  the  process  of  selection  until  just  prior  to  the  breed- 
ing season.  As  the  chicks  are  growing  on  the  range  the  most 
vigorous  ones,  those  which  impress  themselves  in  the  eye  of  the 
breeder  as  surpassing  their  associates  in  vitality,  rate  of  growth, 
vigor,  etc.,  should  be  marked  and  watched.  With  later  develop- 
ment some  of  these  early  selected  birds  will  fail  to  fulfill  the 
promise  of  their  youth  and  will  then  be  discarded.  Others 
which  were  not  conspicuously  excellent  at  an  early  age  will 
develop  into  unusually  good  specimens  later.  They  may 
then  be  taken  into  the  selected  group.  Finally  as  the  mating 
season  approaches  the  breeder  should  go  carefully  over  this 
group  of  birds  which  have  been  selected  from  the  beginning  of 
their  lives,  and  pick  out  the  most  vigorous  of  the  lot  which 
also  carry  the  other  qualities  for  which  he  is  breeding.  The 


2O  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

point  is  to  make  the  selection  of  breeders  a  process  of  continu- 
ous picking  out  the  good  and  culling  the  poor  throughout  the 
entire  growth  of  the  birds. 

Another  point  of  importance  is  in  relation  to  the  size  of  the 
breeding  stock.  It  is  a  nearly  universal  experience,  if  line 
breeding  be  practised  for  any  particular  character,  as  for  exam- 
ple egg  production  or  feather  marking,  that  unless  special  at- 
tention is  paid  to  this  point  there  will  tend  to  be  a  progressive 
deterioration  in  the  average  size  of  the  birds.  This  is  particu- 
larly liable  to  happen  when  one  is  breeding  for  egg  production. 
To  counteract  this  tendency  special  attention  must  be  paid  to 
the  size  of  the  breeding  stock,  making  it  a  rule  never  to  use  as 
a  breeder  any  bird,  whatever  the  other  excellencies  may  be, 
which  does  not  attain  a  certain  weight  standard  set  by  the 
breeder. 

What  has  been  said  regarding  size  is  only  a  special  case  of 
the  general  rule  of  breeding  that  always  the  effort  in  selecting 
breeders  should  be  towards  all-round  excellence.  Selection  for 
any  one  character  alone — as  for  example  egg  production — 
with  an  entire  disregard  of  all  other  characters  of  the  birds 
will,  in  comparatively  few  generations,  defeat  its  own  end.  It 
will  be  found  that  the  stock  has  deteriorated  quite  as  much  in 
regard  to  some  important  qualities  as  it  may  have  gained  in 
respect  to  the  character  for  which  selection  was  made. 

While  it  is  not  possible  here  to  enter  upon  an  exhaustive  dis- 
cussion of  the  subject  of  breeding  for  egg  production  a  word 
may  be  said  regarding  the  results  of  the  Maine  Agricultural 
Experiment  Station  along  this  line.  From  long  continued 
experiments  it  appears  to  be  conclusively  demonstrated  that 
the  male  bird  has  a  hitherto  unsuspected  importance  in  the 
transmission  of  high-laying  qualities  to  the  progeny.  Egg  pro- 
duction, in  the  Barred  Plymouth  Rock  fowl  at  least,  appears 
to  depend  upon  two  separately  inherited  physiological  factors. 
Either  of  these  factors  when  present  alone  in  a  bird  makes  it 
a  poor  or  mediocre  layer.  If  both  factors  are  present  together 
the  bird  is  a  high  producer.  The  novel  feature  of  the  case  lies 
in  the  point  that  the  factor  upon  which  high  production  depends 
(i.  e.,  which  must  be  present  if  the  bird  is  to  be  a  high  pro- 
ducer) is  never  transmitted  in  inheritance  from  a  mother  to 
her  daughters,  but  only  to  her  sons.  It  behaves,  in  other  words 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  21 

as  a  sex-linked  character.  The  male  bird  which  possesses  this 
hereditary  factor  for  high  production  may  however  transmit 
it  both  to  his  sons  and  his  daughters.  It  thus  appears  that  the 
high  egg  productiveness  exhibited  by  some  pullets  or  hens  is 
always  directly  inherited  from  the  sire,  and  not  at  all  directly 
from  the  dam,  though  the  sire  himself  may  very  likely  have 
inherited  the  quality  from  his  dam.  Indeed  the  male  which  is 
hereditarily  pure  (homozygous)  with  respect  to  this  high  pro- 
ducing factor  must  receive  one  half  of  his  endowment  from 
his  dam.  The  practical  significance  of  this  matter  is  that  more 
attention  will  have  to  be  paid  to  the  male  birds  in  breeding  for 
egg-production  than  has  hitherto  been  the  case.  Only  males 
from  high-laying  dams  should  be  used  as  breeders  and  of  those 
only  a  portion  will  transmit  high  producing  qualities  to  any 
large  proportion  of  the  daughters.  An  important  practical 
step  is  to  toe-mark,  or  otherwise  identify,  all  pullets  so  that 
their  sire  may  be  known.  From  their  performance  the  breeder 
will  be  able  to  judge  of  the  ability  of  the  sons  of  this  sire  (the 
brothers  of  the  pullets)  to  transmit  high-producing  qualities.* 

RAISING  CHICKENS  BY  NATURAL  PROCESSES. 

While  even  the  small  grower  of  chickens  in  many  cases  uses 
an  incubator  for  hatching,  circumstances  make  it  necessary  at 
times  to  hatch  and  raise  chickens  by  aid  of  the  mother  hen. 
To  persons  so  situated  an  outline  of  the  method  practiced  at  the 
Station  before  incubators  had  reached  their  present  develop- 
ment may  be  helpful.  An  unused  tie-up  in  a  barn  was  taken 
for  the  incubating  room  and  a  platform  was  made  along  the 
inner  side.  The  platform  was  3  feet  above  the  floor  and  was 
2  1-2  feet  wide  and  50  feet  long.  It  was  divided  into  fifty 
little  stalls  or  nests,  each  i  foot  wide,  2  feet  long,  and  I  foot 
high.  This  left  a  6-inch  walk  along  the  front  of  the  nests  for 
the  hens  to  light  on  when  flying  up  from  the  floor.  Each  nest 
had  a  door  made  of  laths  at  the  front,  so  as  to  give  ventilation. 
The  door  was  hinged  at  the  bottom  and  turned  outward. 
Across  the  center  of  each  nest  a  low  partition  was  placed,  so 
that  the  nesting  material  would  be  kept  in  the  back  end — the 


*A  detailed  report  of  the  experiments  on  the  basis  of  which  the  above 
statements  are  made  is  published  as  Bulletin  205  of  the  Maine  Agricul- 
tural Experiment  Station. 


22  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

nest  proper.  For  early  spring  work  paper  was  put  in  the  bot- 
tom of  the  nest,  then  an  inch  or  two  of  dry  earth,  and  on 
that  the  nest,  made  of  soft  hay. 

Whenever  half  a  dozen  hens  became  broody  they  were  taken 
in  from  the  henhouse  and  put  on  the  nests,  each  nest  having  a 
dummy  egg  in  it;  the  covers  were  then  shut  up,  and  nearly 
every  hen  seemed  contented.  In  a  day  or  two  13  eggs  were 
placed  under  each  hen.  Every  morning  the  hens  were  liberated 
as  soon  as  it  was  light,  when  they  would  come  down  of  their 
own  accord  and  burrow  in  the  dry  dust  on  the  floor,  eat,  drink, 
and  exercise,  and  in  twelve  or  fifteen  minutes  they  would  nearly 
all  go  back  to  the  nests  voluntarily.  In  the  afternoons  one  would 
occasionally  be  found  off  the  eggs  looking  out  through  the 
slatted  door.  If  she  persisted  in  coming  off  she  was  exchanged 
for  a  better  sitter.  The  double  nest  is  necessary,  otherwise  the 
discontented  hen  would  have  no  room  to  stand  up,  except  on 
her  nest  full  of  eggs,  and  she  would  very  likely  ruin  them. 
There  was  no  danger  of  this  with  the  double  nest,  as  she  would 
step  off  the  nest,  go  to  the  door  and  try  to  get  out. 

The  advantages  of  a  closed  room  in  which  to  confine  the  sit- 
ters are  many,  as  the  hens  are  easily  controlled  and  do  not  need 
watching  as  they  do  when  selecting  nests  for  themselves,  or 
when  sitting  in  the  same  room  with  laying  hens.  A  room  12 
feet  square  could  be  arranged  so  as  easily  to  accommodate  50 
sitters. 

The  most  satisfactory  arrangement  used  at  the  Maine  Station 
for  the  accommodation  of  the  hen  with  her  brood  of  young 
chicks  consisted  of  a  closed  coop  about  30  inches  square,  with 
a  hinged  roof  and  a  movable  floor  in  two  parts,  which  would  be 
lifted  out  each  day  for  cleaning.  This  little  coop  had  a  wire- 
covered  yard  attached  to  it  on  the  south  side.  The  yard  was  4 
by  5  feet  in  size  and  11-2  feet  high.  Its  frame  was  of  i-inch 
by  3-inch  strips  and  was  fastened  securely  to  the  coop. 

The  wire  on  the  sides  was  of  i-inch  mesh,  but  on  top  2-inch 
mesh  was  sufficient.  Such  a  coop  is  easily  kept  clean,  and  the 
coop  and  yard  can  be  set  over  upon  clean  grass  by  one  person. 

The  small  run  will  be  sufficient  for  the  first  few  weeks,  but 
soon  the  chicks  need  greater  range,  and  then  the  fence  at  the 
farther  end  of  the  run  can  be  lifted  up  3  or  4  inches  and  they 
can  pass  in  and  out  at  will,  while  the  mother  will  be  secure  at 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  23 

home  and  they  will  know  'where  to  find  her  when  they  get  cold 
or  damp  or  need  brooding.  Such  a  coop  accommodates  15  to 
20  chicks  until  they  no  longer  require  brooding,  after  which 
several  flocks  should  be  combined  in  one  and  put  in  a  portable 
house  on  a  grassy  range. 

Whenever  the  hen  is  allowed  to  hatch  or  to  mother  chicks, 
much  care  must  be  exercised  to  prevent  lice  from  getting  a  foot- 
hold and  ruining  the  birds.  The  free  and  frequent  use  of  the 
lice  powder  described  farther  on  (p.  •"-.),  working  it  through 
the  feathers  to  the  skin,  is  one  of  the  best  methods  for  destroy- 
ing the  pests.  Grease  or  oil  is  effective  when  applied  to  the 
heads  and  under  the  wings  of  young  chicks,  but  care  must  be 
taken  not  to  get  too  much  on  them,  especially  during  damp 
weather.  The  feeding  of  chicks  raised  in  coops  with  their 
mothers  does  not  vary  much  from  the  feeding  of  those  raised 
in  brooders  as  described  below. 

RAISING  CHICKENS  BY  ARTIFICIAL  PROCESSES. 
Incubators  have  been  much  improved  and  there  are  several 
kinds  on  the  market  that  will  hatch  about  as  many  chicks  from  a 
given  lot  of  eggs  as  can  be  done  by  selected  broody  hens.  Fur- 
thermore, in  the  experience  of  this  Station,  with  proper  man- 
agement during  and  subsequent  to  incubation  the  chicks  so  pro- 
duced are  fully  the  equal  in  constitutional  vigor,  average  dura- 
tion of  life,  and  productivity,  of  hen-hatched  chicks.  The  best 
present  day  incubators  require  little  care,  maintain  an  even 
temperature  arising  from  the  development  of  the  embryoes 
going  on  in  the  eggs.  In  some  machines  the  moisture  supply 
is  automatic  and  adapted  to  the  requirements;  in  others  it  has 
to  be  supplied,  and  skill  is  necessary  in  determining  the  quan- 
tity needed.  The  economy  of  the  incubator  is  very  great.  A 
36o-egg  machine  will  do  the  work  of  nearly  30  broody  hens, 
and  can  be  kept  at  work  continually  if  desired.  For  more  than 
10  years  past  all  chicks  in  the  Maine  Experiment  Station's  poul- 
try plant  have  been  hatched  in  incubators.  There  has  yet  to 
appear  any  reason  for  going  back  to  the  old  system  of  hatching 
with  hens. 

THE    INCUBATOR. 

There  are  many  makes  of  incubators  on  the  market,  some 
of  which  will  give  satisfactory  results.  The  Maine  Station 


24  METHODS    OF    POUI/TRY    MANAGEMENT. 

has  not  tested  many  makes  of  incubators,  and  very  likely  some 
of  the  makes  not  tested  would  prove  as  satisfactory  as  those 
used.* 

Whatever  make  of  incubator  is  used,  pains  should  be  taken 
to  become  thoroughly  acquainted  with  the  machine  before  the 
eggs  are  put  into  it.  It  is  advisable  for  a  person  not  familiar 
with  the  use  of  an  incubator  to  run  the  machine  empty  for  sev- 
eral days  before  filling  it.  After  the  eggs  are  put  in,  changes 
and  adjustments  should  be  made  with  the  greatest  care  for  fear 
of  extreme  results.  By  the  use  of  an  incubator  it  is  possible  to 
determine  exactly  the  time  when  the  chickens  shall  be  hatched. 
With  the  strain  of  Barred  Plymouth  Rocks  bred  by  the  Maine 
station  it  was  formerly  necessary  to  hatch  the  chickens  in 
March  in  order  to  have  them  ready  for  November  laying.  By 
better  methods  of  feeding,  breeding,  and  treatment,  it  is  now 
possible  to  delay  the  hatching  until  April  and  the  first  of  May 
and  have  the  pullets  in  good  laying  condition  the  last  of  October 
and  early  in  November.  Chickens  hatched  in  March  under  the 
present  method  of  breeding  and  feeding  would  in  many  cases 
begin  laying  in  August. 

THE  INCUBATOR  ROOM. 

It  is  important  that  the  incubator  room  be  so  situated  that  it 
can  be  kept  at  a  fairly  constant  temperature.  On  this  account 
an  underground  room  is  usually  selected.  For  many  years  the 
well-lighted  cellar  under  the  wing  of  the  farmhouse  was  used 
by  the  Maine  Station.  A  cold  or  badly  ventilated  cellar  would, 
however,  be  poorly  adapted  for  incubators.  Ventilation  is  very 
important,  and  where  several  incubators  are  in  use  artificial 
ventilation  must  be  provided,  in  order  that  the  machines  may 
be  furnished  with  clean,  fresh  air  at  all  times. 

In  1905  the  Maine  Station  erected  an  incubator  house  which 
practically  consists  of  a  well-made,  light,  airy  cellar  with  a 
house  for  the  poultry  man  above  it.  The  incubator  room,  which 
occupies  the  entire  cellar,  is  30  feet  square.  The  room  is  7  feet 

*A  discussion  of  the  different  types  of  incubators  and  the  methods  of 
managing  them  to  get  the  best  results  is  given  in  Farmers'  Bulletin 
236,  "Incubation  and  Incubators,"  which  may  be  obtained  free  on  appli- 
cation to  the  Secretary  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C.  The  direc- 
tions furnished  by  the  manufacturers  of  the  different  incubators  should 
be  strictly  adhered  to  by  the  beginner. 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  25 

high  in  the  clear,  5  feet  of  which  is  below  the  level  of  the  out- 
side ground.  It  is  lighted  by  six  3-light  windows,  carrying 
glass  10  inches  by  16  inches.  The  cement  walls  are  finished 
smooth  and  the  cement  floor  is  slightly  inclined  toward  the 
southeast  corner  where  the  intake  of  the  drain  is  located. 
This  enables  the  free  use  of  water  from  hose  in  cleaning  the 
room  preparatory  to  starting  the  incubators.  Two  chimneys 
extend  to  the  basement  floor  and  contain  ventilating  flues  that 
have  no  opening  into  the  rooms  above.  Entrance  to  the  room 
is  through  a  covered  outside  cellar  stairway  leading  into  a  shed 
at  the  rear  of  the  building.  The  room  now  contains  thirteen 
3(5o-egg  machines. 

In  the  directions  which  accompany  certain  of  the  incubators 
which  have  been  used  at  the  Station  it  is  stated  that  an  artifi- 
cial source  of  moisture  is  not  needed  in  operating  these  incu- 
bators except  in  very  arid  parts  of  the  country.  It  is  said  that 
in  other  places  the  normal  moisture  of  the  atmosphere  is  suffi- 
cient to  insure  the  necessary  moisture  in  the  incubator.  The 
experience  of  the  Station  indicates  that  except  possibly  in  a 
rather  wet  season  this  is  not  the  case.  It  has  been  found  here 
that  in  an  ordinary  season  if  no  artificial  moisture  is  supplied 
to  the  incubators  there  is  too  great  an  evaporation  from  the 
eggs.  It  is  demonstrable  that  many  eggs  fail  to  hatch  because 
of  this  dryness  of  the  air  in  the  incubator.  It  is  not  desirable 
here  to  enter  into  a  detailed  discussion  regarding  experiments 
on  this  point.  It  suffices  to  state  the  fact  that  in  the  Station's 
experience  better  hatches  have  been  obtained  when  moisture 
beyond  that  normal  in  the  atmosphere  is  supplied  during  incu- 
bation. The  most  satisfactory  way  to  supply  this  extra  moist- 
ure in  machines  where  sand  trays  are  not  an  integral  part, 
has  been  found  to  be  by  sprinkling  the  eggs  with  warm  water 
twice  a  day.  The  water  is  warmed  to  a  temperature  of  from 
!O4°-io8°  Fahr.  The  sprinkling  may  be  done  either  with  a 
small  hand  sprayer  or  by  simply  shaking  the  water  on  with  the 
hand  or  a  whisk  broom.  This  is  done  in  connection  with  the 
regular  manipulation  of  the  eggs  (cooling  and  turning)  during 
incubation.  The  application  of  moisture  is  begun  as  soon  as 
the  eggs  go  into  the  machine  and  is  continued  until  the  i8th  day. 
Since  adopting  this  procedure  a  very  considerable  'reduction  in 
the  mortality  of  chicks  in  the  shell  has  been  effected. 


26  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

BROODER    HOUSES. 

Some  years  ago  there  was  erected  at  this  Station  a  long  con- 
tinuous brooder  house,  containing  TO  brooders  and  with  ca- 
pacity for  600  to  looo  chicks.  This  house  burned  during  the 
first  season  of  its  use,  and  has  never  been  replaced. 

A  permanent  brooder  house  would  be  indispensable  for  the 
raising  of  winter  chickens,  and  a  house  piped  for  hot  water 
has  some  advantages.  The  advantages  are  especially  great 
when  raising  chickens  if  April  or  May  proves  to  be  cold  or  wet, 
for  then  the  small  houses  are  apt  to  be  cold  outside  of  the 
brooders.  In  ordinary  seasons,  even  in  Maine,  little  or  no  diffi- 
culty is  experienced  in  raising  chicks  hatched  in  April  and  May 
in  the  small  houses.  The  expenditure  would  be  greater  for 
the  piped  house,  for  the  reason  that  colony  houses  still  must  be 
provided  in  which  the  chicks  may  be  sheltered  after  they  leave 
the  brooder  house. 

Since  the  burning  of  the  house  just  described,  the  Maine 
Station  has  used  small  portable  brooder  houses  (see  fig.  i). 
The  small  brooder  houses  built  on  runners  are  readily  moved 
about,  and  for  the  work  with  spring-hatched  chickens  are 
preferred  to  the  large  permanent  brooder  house.  Several  styles 
and  sizes  have  been  used,  but  the  following  meets  the  needs 
of  the  Station  better  than  any  other  that  has  been  tried.  The 
houses  are  built  on  two  1 6- foot  pieces  of  4  by  6  inch  timbers, 
which  serve  as  runners.  The  ends  of  the  timbers,  which  pro- 
ject beyond  the  house,  are  chamfered  on  the  underside  to  facili- 
tate moving.  The  houses  are  12  feet  long;  some  of  them  are 
6  feet  and  others  7  feet  wide ;  7  feet  is  the  better  width.  They 
are  6  feet  high  in  front  and  4  feet  high  at  the  back.  The  frame 
is  of  2  by  3  inch  lumber;  the  floor  is  double  boarded,  and  the 
building  is  boarded  and  covered  with  a  good  quality  of  heavy 
roofing  paper.  Formerly  shingles  were  used  for  the  outside 
covering,  but  paper  is  preferred  and  is  now  used  exclusively. 
This  kind  of  covering  for  the  wall  is  not  so  likely  to  be  injured 
in  moving  as  shingles.  A  door  2  feet  wide  is  in  the  center  of 
the  front  and  a  6-light  window,  hinged  at  the  top,  is  on  each 
side  of  it.  Two  brooders  are  placed  in  each  of  these  houses  and 
50  to  60  chicks  are  put  with  each  brooder.  A  low  partition 
separates  the  flocks  while  they  are  young.  The  houses  are  large 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL,    EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


28  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

enough  so  that  a  person  can  go  in  and  do  the  work  comfortably, 
and  each  one  accommodates  100  chicks  until  the  cockerels  are 
large  enough  to  be  removed.  One  of  these  houses  is  shown  in 
figure  2. 

An  improvement  has  recently  been  made  in  these  brooder 
houses  by  providing  for  better  ventilation.  When  the  weather 
is  very  hot  there  is  no  movement  of  air  within  one  of  these 
houses,  even  though  the  door  and  windows  are  open.  The  air 
within  the  house  is  practically  stagnant  and,  on  account  of  its 
relatively  small  volume,  becomes  intensely  hot  and  stifling  when 
the  temperature  outside  gets  high.  The  effect  on  the  chicks 
under  such  circumstances  is  bad.  They  retreat  to  the  houses  to 
get  shade,  but  only  to  be  injured  if  not  killed  by  the  hot,  stifling 
air  of  the  house.  To  remedy  this  difficulty  a  slot  2  feet  long 
and  i  foot  wide  has  been  cut  in  the  back  of  each  house  high 
up  under  the  eaves.  This  slot  is  closed  with  a  wooden  slide 
running  in  grooves  which  are  put  on  the  outside  of  the  house. 
The  opening  is  covered  on  the  inside  with  2-inch  mesh  chicken 
wire.  On  very  hot  days  the  slide  is  pulled  out  completely  so  as 
to  expose  the  whole  opening  of  the  slot.  At  night  or  during 
a  period  of  wet,  cold  weather  the  size  of  the  opening  is  regulat- 
ed to  suit  the  conditions.  It  enables  one  to  keep  a  current  of 
fresh  air  through  the  house  in  the  warmest  weather.  The  effect 
on  the  well-being  of  the  chicks  during  a  period  of  hot  weather 
is  most  marked  and  satisfactory. 

A    FRESH    AIR    BROODER. 

For  a  number  of  years  prior  to  1910  the  Maine  Station  used 
in  rearing  chickens  a  commercial,  hot  air,  brooder.  These 
brooders  never  gave  entire  satisfaction.  During  the  period  in 
which  they  were  used  the  mortality  during  the  first  three  weeks 
in  the  brooder  was  too  large,  and  remained  so  even  after  all 
factors  other  than  the  brooder  had  so  far  as  possible  been  cor- 
rected. 

After  careful  consideration  of  the  matter  it  appeared  that 
there  were  three  fundamental  defects  in  brooders  of  the  type 
used.  These  are :  ( i )  In  order  to  get  a  sufficiently  high  tem- 
terature  underneath  the  hover  in  the  sort  of  weather  which 
prevails  in  this  locality  during  the  latter  part  of  March  and 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


29 


first  part  of  April  it  is  necessary  to  turn  the  lamp  so  high  that 
the  floor  of  the  brooder  gets  much  too  hot.  Tn  other  words,  if 
brooders  of  this  type  are  forced  at  all  there  is  too  much  "bot- 
tom heat."  (2)  Brooders  of  this  kind  have  no  provision  for 
taking  the  lamp  fumes  and  vitiated  air  out  of  the  building  in 


Is 


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which  the  brooder  is  operated.  This  becomes  a  very  serious 
matter  when,  as  is  the'  case  at  this  Station,  two  of  these  brood- 
ers are  operated  in  a  small  colony  house,  with  a  floor  area  of 
only  6  or  7  feet  by  12  feet.  In  the  cold  weather  of  April  it  is 
necessary  to  shut  these  houses  at  night  in  order  to  maintain 


3O  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

anything  like  the  proper  temperature  underneath  the  hovers. 
When  the  door  of  such  a  house  with  twoa  of  these  brooders 
operating  in  it  is  opened  in  the  morning  the  air  is  plainly  very 
bad.  Not  only  does  it  contain  all  the  lamp  fumes,  but  it  also 
has  a  peculiarly  dry,  burned-out  smell.  (3)  When  these 
brooders  are  operated  in  small  colony  houses,  and  the  same 
houses  are  used  for  growing  the  chickens  on  the  range  through- 
out the  summer,  a  considerable  labor  expense  and  a  good  deal 
of  wear  and  tear  on  the  brooders  themselves  is  involved  in 


_  FIG.  4.  Section  through  middle  of  brooder.  Note  cloth  cover  and 
side,  large  space  between  floor  of  brooder  and  floor  of  house,  in  which 
the  lamp  is  placed  while  the  brooder  is  in  operation,  and  which  serves  as 
a  storage  place  for  the  whole  upper  part  of  the  brooder  when  the  latter 
is  not  in  use. 

moving  them  about.  After  the  chicks  have  reached  a  size 
when  it  is  no  longer  necessary  for  them  to  have  a  hover  the 
brooders  must  be  moved  out  and  stored  somewhere  until  the 
houses  are  cleaned  out  in  the  fall.  Then  the  brooders  have  to 
be  moved  back  in  again  in  preparation  for  the  next  year's  hatch- 
ing season.  All  this  involves  a  good  deal  of  labor.  Every 
poultryman  knows,  or  ought  to  know,  that  one  of  the  primary 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  3! 

factors  in  determining  financial  success  or  failure  in  the  poultry 
business  is  the  labor  cost.  Any  plan  which  attains  a  real  sav- 
ing of  labor,  without  involving  any  disadvantages  in  other  ways, 
is  to  be  welcomed.  Certainly  the  operation  of  brooders  which 


BB.  Removable  end   and  front, 
held  by  hooks,  hh,  to  uprights  ,PP 
are  canvas   on    wood   frames 


FIG.  5.    Floor  plan  of  brooder.     For  further  explanation  see  text. 

have  to  be  handled  about  so  much  every  season  constitutes  a 
labor  leak,  which  on  a  large  plant  operating  50  to  100  brooders 
is  considerable  in  amount. 

In  view  of  these  considerations  it  was  decided  in  the  hatch- 
ing season  of  1909  to  begin  some  experiments  looking  toward 
an  improvement  in  the  brooders  used  for  rearing  the  chickens 


32  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

at  this  Station.  At  first  some  different  types  of  commercial 
brooders  were  tested.  The  results,  however,  were  not  satis- 
factory. Before  the  hatching  season  of  1910  it  was  decided  to 
try  on  an  experimental  scale  a  brooder  devised  to  overcome 
the  objections  mentioned  above  to  brooders  of  the  type  for- 
merly used.  The  results  obtained  were  strikingly  favorable  to 


FIG.  6.     Showing  brooder  installed  and  ready   for  operation. 

the  new  brooders.  In  this  bulletin  is  given  a  detailed  descrip- 
tion of  this  brooder,  together  with  working  plans  so  that  any 
poultryman  can  construct  one  for  his  own  use  if  he  cares  to  do 
so. 

The  advantages  which  have  been  found  to  accrue  from  the 
use  of  this  brooder  at  the  Maine  Station  fall  into  two  general 
categories.  The  first  of  these  is  that  it  is  possible  to  rear  in 
this  brooder  a  larger  number  of  chickens  in  proportion  to  the 
number  originally  put  in  than  in  any  other  brooder  with  which 
the  Station  has  had  any  experience.  That  is,  the  mortality 
rate  of  chicks  raised  in  this  brooder,  is  relatively  low,  particu- 
larly as  compared  with  brooders  of  the  old  type.  Furthermore 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  33 

not  only  do  the  chicks  live  better  in  this  new  brooder  but  also, 
according  to  our  experience,  those  which  do  live  grow  better 
and  are  thriftier  than  those  raised  in  the  other  type  of  brooder. 
The  second  advantage  lies  in  the  great  saving  of  labor  which 
is  effected  by  the  use  of  the  new  brooder.  The  fact  that  the 
brooder  never  has  to  be  taken  away  from  the  house  where  it  is 
operated  means  a  decided  economy. 


FIG.  7.     Showing  brooder  dismantled  and  parts  stored  in  base. 
CONSTRUCTION  OF  BROODER. 

In  planning  this  brooder  the  primary  point  aimed  at  was  to 
make  it  a  "fresh  air"  and  a  "pure  air"  brooder.  With  this  idea 
in  mind  it  was  thought  advisable  to  make  the  wall  of  the  brood- 
er in  some  degree  permeable  to  air.  To  meet  this  requirement 
the  walls  and  cover  of  the  brooder  are  made  of  cloth.  Essen- 
tially the  brooder  is  a  cloth  box  containing  a  hover,  of  the 
type  in  which  the  lamp  fumes  are  conducted  outside  of  the 
building  by  an  exhaust  pipe. 

These  brooders  are  built  as  a  constituent  part  of  the  houses 
which  they  occupy.  Two  brooders  are  placed  in  each  colony 
3 


34  METHODS    OF    POUI/TRY    MANAGEMENT. 

house,  one  in  each  of  the  back  corners  of  the  building.  In  this 
way  one  end  wall  and  the  back  wall  of  the  building  form  two  of 
the  sides  of  each  brooder.  The  remaining  side  and  cover  are 
made  of  cloth  tacked  on  light  wooden  frames  as  shown  in  the 
working  drawings. 

The  floor  of  the  brooder  stands  10  inches  above  the  floor  of 
the  house.  From  the  front  of  the  brooder  a  sloping  walk  ex- 
tends down  to  the  house  floor,  reaching  in  width  clear  across 
the  whole  front  of  the  brooder.  The  cloth  front  and  side  of 
the  brooder  are  not  permanently  fixed  in  position  but  are 
removable  panels,  which  are  held  together  and  to  the  frame 
work  by  hooks  and  eyes  (see  fig.  5).  The  cover  is  hinged 
in  the  middle  in  such  a  way  that  it  can  be  either  half  opened 
or  entirely  opened  and  folded  back  out  of  the  way.  In  con- 
sequence of  this  arrangement  it  is  possible  to  regulate  with 
great  nicety  the  amount  of  air  which  shall  be  admitted  to  the 
brooder.  Either  the  front  or  the  side  panel  may  be  tilted  out  as 
much  as  desired  at  the  base  thus  admitting  air  there.  Further- 
more by  partly  opening  a  panel  and  the  cover  it  is  possible  to 
insure  that  there  shall  be  a  circulation  of  air  through  the 
brooder  at  all  times. 

The  hover  used  in  this  brooder  is  the  Universal  Hover,  made 
by  the  Prairie  State  Incubator  Co.,  Homer  City,  Pa.  It  is,  how- 
ever, modified  in  certain  particulars  for  present  use.  In  the 
first  place  the  arrangement  is  such  that  the  lamp  is  inside  the 
house  underneath  the  brooder  rather  than  in  a  box  outside  the 
house,  as  in  the  usual  arrangement  of  this  hover.  The  lamp 
in  this  brooder  is  in  the  house  directly  under  the  hover.  The 
reason  for  this  modification  is  that  in  this  climate,  where  one 
is  likely  to  have  bad  weather  during  the  early  part  of  the  hatch- 
ing and  rearing  season,  with  heavy  winds,  snow,  and  rain,  it  is 
much  easier  and  more  satisfactory  to  take  care  of  the  lamp 
inside  the  house  than  from  a  small  box  outside  the  house.  An- 
other modification  is  that  in  the  hovers  which  are  installed  in 
these  brooders  an  especially  heavy  insulation  is  put  on  top  of 
the  drum  to  reduce  the  loss  of  heat  by  radiation  in  extremely 
cold  weather  early  in  the  spring. 

One  of  the  essential  points  about  the  brooder  is  its  compact- 
ness in  storage,  and  the  fact  that  all  the  parts  may  be  stored 
in  the  base  of  the  brooder  itself.  In  this  way  the  labor  expense 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  35 

of  carrying  back  and  forth  parts  from  a  storage  house  each 
year  is  avoided.  To  bring  about  this  result  the  size  of  the 
base  is  so  calculated  that  all  the  parts  of  the  brooder  may  be 
enclosed  in  it.  The  way  in  which  this  is  done  is  apparent  from 
an  examination  of  fig.  3.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  end  of  the 
brooder  base,  (marked  A  A  in  the  diagram)  is  removable,  being 
held  in  place  by  buttons  bb.  When  the  end  of  the  brooding  sea- 
son is  reached  and  there  is  no  further  use  for  the  brooder  that 
year,  the  side  and  front  end  panel  of  the  brooder  are  removed, 
the  canvas  cover  folded  back  and  tacked  to  the  wall  of  the 
building  and  the  hover  dismantled.  All  of  the  parts  are  then 
shoved  under  the  brooder  floor  and  the  panel  AA  put  back  in 
place  again.  The  floor  of  the  brooder  is  removable  so  that  it, 
and  the  floor  underneath,  may  be  cleaned  and  disinfected. 
By  removing  its  legs  the  hover  may  be  stored  in  the  brooder 
base  along  with  the  other  parts,  or  if  one  does  not  desire  to 
do  this  the  hover  may  be  suspended  close  up  to  the  roof 
of  the  building.  In  that  position  it  will  be  impossible  for  the 
birds  to  roost  on  it.  Of  course,  all  movable  parts  should  be 
taken  from  the  hover  before  it  is  hung  up  in  this  way.  These 
parts  may  be  stored  in  the  brooder  base.  After  the  chickens 
are  out  of  the  house  in  the  fall  the  parts  of  the  brooder  are 
taken  out,  thoroughly  cleaned  and  disinfected,  and  then  the 
whole  is  reassembled  and  made  ready  for  the  hatching  season  of 
the  next  year. 

Detailed  working  drawings  of  the  brooder  are  given  here- 
with. Fig.  3  shows  the  end  elevation  of  the  brooder ;  fig.  4 
shows  a  section  through  the  middle  of  the  brooder ;  fig.  5  shows 
a  floor  plan;  fig.  6  shows  the  brooder  in  operation;  and  fig.  7 
shows  its  appearance  when  dismantled  and  with  the  parts  stored 
in  the  base,  while  the  large  chickens  are  using  the  house.  All 
dimensions  are  given  on  these  drawings  and  from  them  it 
should  be  possible  for  anyone  to  construct  the  brooder  for  him- 
self. 

As  material  any  sort  of  planed  lumber  may  be  used.  Prob- 
ably pine  will  be  found  satisfactory  and  economical  in  most 
cases.  Spruce  or  hemlock  may  be  used  to  build  the  base,  if 
one  desires.  For  the  cover  and  removable  sides  almost  any 
sort  of  cloth  may  be  used.  Here  we  have  employed  the  lightest 


36  METHODS    OF    POUI/TRY    MANAGEMENT. 

weight  canvas  (duck)  that  could  be  obtained  locally.  Burlap 
may  be  used,  or  even  unbleached  cotton  cloth  in  localities  where 
the  outside  temperature  is  not  too  low. 

TREATMENT  OF  YOUNG  CHICKS. 

In  the  work  of  the  Maine  Station  all  of  the  birds  are 
hatched  in  incubators,  and  in  pedigree  wire  baskets*  since  all 
are  pedigreed.  They  are  not  disturbed  on  the  2ist  day  of  incu- 
bation, but  on  the  morning  of  the  22nd  day  the  chicks  are  re- 
moved from  the  baskets  and  leg-banded.  Each  chick  is  then 
returned  to  the  basket  from  which  it  came  and  put  back  in  the 
incubator.  There  they  are  left  until  they  are  from  48  to  72 
hours  old.  The  reason  for  keeping  the  chicks  isolated  in  this 
way  for  so  long  a  time  is  to  prevent  their  eating  each  others 
droppings.  It  has  been  shown  by  Rettger  and  Stoneburnt 
that  one  of  the  most  important  chick  scourges,  bacillary  white 
diarrhea,  is  (a)  transmitted  through  the  egg,  and  (b)  can  only 
infect  non-infected  birds  during  the  first  48  hours  of  their  life. 

After  this  time  the  chicks  are  carried  in  warm  covered  bas- 
kets to  the  brooders,  and  50  or  60  are  put  under  each  hover, 
where  the  temperature  is  between  95°  and  100°  F.  The  tem- 
perature is  not  allowed  to  fall  below  95°  F.  during  the  first 
week,  or  90°  F.  during  the  second  week;  then  it  is  gradually 
reduced  according  to  the  temperature  outside,  care  being  taken 
not  to  drive  the  chicks  out  by  too  much  heat,  or  cause  them  to 
crowd  together  under  the  hover  because  they  are  cold.  They 
should  flatten  out  separately  when  young,  and  a  little  later  lie 
with  their  heads  just  at  the  edge  of  the  fringe  of  the  hover. 
They  should  never  be  allowed  to  huddle  outside  of  the  brooder. 
They  huddle  because  they  are  cold,  and  they  should  be  put 
under  the  hover  to  get  warm,  until  they  learn  to  go  there  of 
their  own  accord.  Neither  should  they  be  allowed  to  stay  under 
the  hover  too  much,  but  in  the  daytime  should  be  forced  out 
into  the  cooler  air  where  they  gain  strength.  They  ought  not  to 
be  allowed  to  get  more  than  a  foot  from  the  hover  during  the 
first  two  days;  then  a  little  farther  away  each  day,  and  down 
on  the  house  floor  about  the  fourth  or  fifth  day,  if  the 


*  See  Bulletin  159,  Maine  Agricultural  Experiment  Station, 
t  Storrs  Agr.  Expt.  Stat.  Bulletin  60. 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  37 

weather  is  not  too  cold.  They  must  not  get  cold  enough  to 
huddle  or  cry,  but  must  come  out  from  under  the  hover  fre- 
quently. 

The  floor  of  the  brooder  is  cleaned  every  day  and  kept  well 
sprinkled  with  alfalfa  meal.  So  far  as  we  are  aware  sand  may 
be  used  for  this  purpose,  but  it  has  never  been  tried  at  this 
Station.  The  floor  of  the  house  is  covered  with  clover  leaves 
or  with  hay  chaff  from  the  feeding  floor  in  the  cattle  barns. 

FEEDS  AND  FEEDING. 

FEEDING   YOUNG   CHICKENS. 

The  best  method  of  feeding  young  chicks  is  at  present  a  mat- 
ter of  some  uncertainty,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  there  ever  will  be 
general  agreement  as  to  the  one  best  method.  One  condition, 
however,  appears  to  be  imperative,  and  that  is  that  the  young 
things  be  not  allowed  to  overeat.  A  number  of  different  meth- 
ods of  feeding  young  chickens  have  been  used  at  the  Station  in 
the  past.  The  most  useful  of  these  methods  follow. 

Method  i. — Infertile  eggs  are  boiled  for  half  an  hour  and 
then  ground  in  an  ordinary  meat  chopper,  shells  included,  and 
mixed  with  about  six  times  their  bulk  of  rolled  oats,  by  rubbing 
both  together.  This  mixture  is  the  feed  for  two  or  three  days, 
until  the  chicks  have  learned  how  to  eat.  It  is  fed  with  chick 
grit,  on  the  brooder  floor,  on  the  short  cut  clover  or  chaff. 

About  the  third  day  the  chicks  are  fed  a  mixture  of  hard, 
fine-broken  grains,  as  soon  as  they  can  see  to  eat  in  the  morn- 
ing. The  mixture  now  used  has  the  following  composition : 

Parts  by  weight. 

Cracked  wheat    15 

Pinhead  oats  (granulated  oat  meal)    10 

Fine  screened  cracked  corn   15 

Fine  cracked  peas  3 

Broken  rice  2 

Chick  grit   5 

Fine  charcoal   (chick  size)    2 

It  is  fed  on  the  litter,  care  being  taken  to  limit  the  quantity, 
so  they  shall  be  hungry  at  9  o'clock  a.  m. 


3§  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

Several  of  the  prepared,  dry,  commercial  chick  feeds  may  be 
substituted  for  the  broken  grains.  They  are  satisfactory  when 
made  of  good,  clean,  broken  grains  and  seeds,  but  they  contain 
no  secret  properties  that  make  them  more  desirable  than  the 
home-mixed  broken  grains  mentioned  above.  Their  use  is 
simply  a  matter  of  convenience.  When  only  a  few  chicks  are 
raised,  it  is  generally  more  convenient,  and  probably  not  more 
expensive,  to  buy  the  prepared  feed,  but  when  many  are  raised 
it  is  less  expensive  to  use  the  home-mixed  feeds. 

Sharp  grit,  fine  charcoal,  and  clean  water  are  always  before 
the  chicks.  At  9  o'clock  the  rolled  oats  and  egg  mixture  is  fed 
in  tin  plates  with  low  rims.  After  they  have  had  the  feed  be- 
fore them  five  minutes  the  dishes  are  removed  and  they  have 
nothing  to  lunch  on.  At  12.30  o'clock  the  hard-grain  mixture 
is  fed  again,  as  in  the  morning,  and  at  4.30  or  5  o'clock  they 
are  fed  all  they  will  eat  in  half  an  hour  of  the  rolled  oats  and 
egg  mixture. 

When  they  are  about  3  weeks  old  the  rolled  oats  and  egg 
mixture  is  gradually  displaced  by  a  mixture  having  the  follow- 
ing composition : 

Parts  by  weight. 

Wheat  bran  (clean)   2 

Corn  meal   4 

"Daisy  flour"  (or  other  low  grade  flour)   2 

Linseed  meal    i 

Screened  beef  scrap  2 

This  mixture  is  moistened  with  water  just  enough  so  that  it  is 
not  sticky,  but  will  crumble  when  a  handful  is  squeezed  and  then 
released.  The  birds  are  developed  far  enough  by  this  time  so 
that  the  tin  plates  are  discarded  for  light  troughs  with  low 
sides.  Young  chicks  like  the  moist  mash  better  than  that  not 
moistened,  and  will  eat  more  of  it  in  a  short  time.  There  is  no 
danger  from  the  free  use  of  the  properly  made  mash  twice  a 
day,  and  since  it  is  already  ground  the  young  birds  can  eat  and 
digest  more  of  it  than  when  the  feed  is  all  coarse.  This  is  a 
very  important  fact,  and  should  be  taken  advantage  of  at  the 
time  when  the  young  chicks  are  most  susceptible  to  rapid 
growth,  but  the  development  must  be  moderate  during  tne  first 
few  weeks.  The  digestive  organs  must  be  kept  in  normal  condi- 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  39 

tion  by  the  partial  use  of  hard  feed,  and  the  gizzard  must  not  be 
deprived  of  its  legitimate  work  and  allowed  to  become  weak  by 
disuse. 

By  the  time  the  chicks  are  5  or  6  weeks  old  the  small  broken 
grains  are  discontinued  and  the  two  litter  feeds  are  wholly  of 
screened  cracked  corn  and  whole  wheat.  Only  good  clean 
wheat  that  is  not  sour  or  musty  should  be  used. 

When  young  chicks  are  fed  as  described,  the  results  have 
always  been  satisfactory  if  the  chicks  have  not  been  given  too 
much  of  the  scratch  feed  and  if  the  dishes  of  ground  material 
have  been  removed  immediately  after  the  meal  was  completed. 
The  objections  to  this  system  of  feeding  are  the  extra  labor 
involved  in  preparing  the  eggs,  mixing  the  feed  with  water, 
and  removing  the  troughs  at  the  proper  time. 

Method  2. — This  is  like  Method  i,  except  that  fine  beef  scrap 
is  used  instead  of  boiled  eggs  and  the  mash  is  not  moistened. 

Early  in  the  morning  the  chicks  are  given  the  hard  feed  on 
the  floor  litter  as  described  in  Method  i.  At  9  o'clock  they  are 
fed  a  mixture  having  the  following  composition : 

Parts  by  weight. 

Rolled    oats    2 

Wheat   bran    2 

Corn  meal   2 

Linseed  meal   \ 

Screened  beef   scrap    I 

This  is  given  in  the  plates  or  troughs,  and  the  dishes  are  re- 
moved after  ten  minutes'  use. 

At  12.30  the  hard  grains  are  fed  again,  and  at  4.30  or  5  the 
dry-meal  mixture  is  given  to  them  for  half  an  hour  or  left  until 
their  bedtime.  The  meal  being  dry,  the  chicks  can  not  eat  it  as 
readily  as  they  can  the  egg  and  rolled  oats  or  the  moistened 
mash.  For  that  reason  it  is  left  for  them  to  feed  upon  longer 
than  when  moistened  with  the  egg  and  water,  but  is  never  left 
before  them  more  than  ten  minutes  at  the  9-o'clock  feeding 
time.  The  aim  is  to  give  them  enough  at  each  of  the  four 
meals  so  that  their  desire  for  food  may  be  satisfied  at  the  time, 
but  to  make  sure  that  they  have  nothing  left  to  lunch  upon.  It 
is  desired  to  have  their  crops  empty  of  feed  before  feeding 
them  again.  When  treated  in  this  way  they  will  have  sharp 


4O  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

appetites  when  the  feeder  appears,  and  come  racing  out  from 
the  brooder  to  meet  him.  If  they  have  been  overfed  at  the  pre- 
vious meal,  and  have  lunched  when  they  saw  fit,  they  do  not 
care  for  the  feeder's  coming.  If  overfed  a  few  times  the  creat- 
ures become  debilitated  and  worthless. 

What  has  been  said  so  far  is  with  reference  to  chicks  that  are 
hatched  out  in  early  spring,  at  a  season  of  the  year  when  it  is 
impossible  under  the  climatic  conditions  in  Maine  for  them  to 
get  out  of  doors  for  work. 

Method  j. — This  is  like  Method  2,  except  that  the  first  mash 
for  the  young  chicks  has  the  following  composition : 

Parts  by  weight. 

Wheat  bran 4 

Corn  meal   3i 

Linseed  meal    . '. \ 

Screened  beef  scrap 2 

Alfalfa  meal  i 

This  mixture  is  scalded  and  then  dry  rolled  oats  are  mixed 
with  it  in  the  proportion  of  2  parts  rolled  oats  to  6  parts  of  the 
mixture.  The  reason  for  mixing  in  this  way  is  that  it  has  been 
found  by  experience  that  if  rolled  oats  are  mixed  with  the  other 
materials  of  the  mash  before  scalding  there  is  a  tendency  for  the 
mash  to  be  soggy  after  it  is  wet.  Mixing  in  the  way  here  out- 
lined has  been  found  to  improve  the  mash  greatly. 

This  mash  and  the  dry  grains  are  fed  as  in  Method  2  until 
the  chicks  are  about  3  weeks  old.  From  3  weeks  on  to  6  or  8 
weeks  the  composition  of  the  mash  is  as  follows: 

Parts  by  weight 

Wheat  bran 2 

Corn   meal    3 

Linseed  meal   2 

Daisy  flour  (or  other  low-grade  flour)    i 

Beef   scrap    i 

Method  4. — When  warm  weather  comes  and  the  later-hatched 
chicks  are  able  to  get  out  on  the  ground  they  find  much  to  amuse 
them,  and  they  work  hard  and  are  able  to  eat  and  digest  more 
feed.  Under  these  conditions  the  dry-meal  mixture  described  in 
Method  2  is  kept  constantly  before  them  in  troughs,  with  good 
results.  With  two  feeds  a  day  of  the  broken  grains  in  the  litter 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  4! 

they  have  hard  feed  enough  to  insure  health  and  they  can  safely 
peck  away  at  the  dry-meal  mixture — a  mouthful  or  two  at  a 
time — when  they  seem  to  happen  to  think  of  it,  and  thrive. 
This  method  has  been  considerably  used  in  feeding  April  and 
May  hatched  chicks.  Many  times  the  results  from  it  have  been 
good.  At  other  times,  when  the  weather  was  dark  and  raw  out 
of  doors  and  the  little  things  were  held  inside,  they  would  hang 
around  the  troughs  and  overeat.  They  would  grow  rapidly  for 
a  few  days,  then  commence  to  go  lame,  eat  little,  and  seek  the 
warm  hover  never  to  recover. 

Method  5. — This  consists  in  feeding  the  cracked  corn,  cracked 
wheat,  pin-head  oats,  and  millet  seed  in  the  litter  four  times  a 
day,  and  keeping  a  trough  of  fine  beef  scrap  within  reach  all 
the  time.  Sometimes  commercial  chick  feeds  have  been  used 
instead  of  the  cracked  corn,  wheat,  oats,  and  millet.  By  this 
system  the  losses  of  birds  have  been  small  when  the  feeding 
has  not  been  so  liberal  as  to  clog  the  appetite.  Much  care  is 
necessary  in  adjusting  the  quantity  of  feed  to  the  needs  of  the 
birds. 

Other  methods  of  feeding  young  chicks  have  been  tried  and 
the  results  watched.  Method  i  has  been  used  for  several  years 
and  no  other  has  been  found  that  gives  better  growth  or  less 
losses  of  birds.  The  only  objection  to  it  is  the  labor  required  in 
preparing  the  feed.  In  the  work  of  the  Station  Method  3  is 
now  preferred  and  used.  The  losses  of  chicks  are  small  by 
either  of  the  methods.  The  labor  in  Method  2  is  considerably 
less  than  is  required  in  Method  i.  Where  either  Methods  I,  2, 
or  3  are  used  the  liability  of  injury  to  the  chicks  is  much  less 
than  when  Methods  4  or  5  are  followed. 

There  are  no  mysteries  connected  with  the  raising  of  the 
young  chickens.  Every  chick  that  is  well  hatched  out  by  the 
twenty-first  day  of  incubation  should  live,  and  will  do  so  as  a 
rule  if  kept  dry,  at  reasonable  temperatures,  and  not  allowed  to 
overeat. 

The  most  careful  work  of  the  poultryman  during  the  whole 
year  is  required  in  getting  the  chicks  through  the  first  three 
weeks  of  their  lives  successfully.  If  they  are  vigorous  up  to  the 
fourth  week,  there  is  little  liability  of  injuring  them  thereafter 
by  any  system  of  feeding,  if  it  is  only  generous  enough  and  they 
have  their  liberty. 


42  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

FEEDING  CHICKS  ON  THE  RANGE. 

By  the  middle  of  June  the  chickens  that  were  hatched  in 
April  are  being  fed  on  cracked  corn,  wheat,  and  the  mash.  At 
about  that  time  the  portable  houses  containing  the  chickens  are 
drawn  from  their  winter  locations  out  to  an  open  hayfield  where 
the  crop  has  been  harvested  and  the  grass  is  short  and  green. 
If  not  too  much  worn,  the  same  field  may  be  used  a  second 
season  for  chickens,  but  this  is  not  recommended.  A  new,  clean 
piece  of  turf  land  should  be  used  each  year.  At  least  two  acres 
should  be  allowed  for  each  1000  chickens,  if  the  land  can  be 
had.  It  is  possible,  as  has  been  demonstrated  repeatedly,  to 
grow  good  sound  vigorous  stock  on  smaller  areas.  But  to  do 
this  is  much  more  difficult  and  trying  work  than  with  larger 
areas. 

When  the  chickens  are  moved  to  the  range,  the  sexes  are 
separated.  The  methods  of  feeding  the  cockerels  and  pullets 
differ,  and  there  has  been  a  gradual  change  in  the  methods  of 
feeding.  Each  method  has  given  good  results.  The  changes 
have  been  introduced  to  save  labor.  After  the  chickens  were 
moved  to  the  range  they  were  fed  in  the  morning  and  evening 
with  a  moistened  mixture  of  corn  meal,  middlings,  and  wheat 
bran,  to  which  one-tenth  as  much  beef  scrap  was  added.  The 
other  two  feeds  were  of  wheat  and  cracked  corn. 

In  1904  a  change  was  made  in  the  manner  of  feeding  1,400 
female  chickens  by  omitting  the  moist  mash  and  keeping  in 
separate  slatted  troughs  cracked  corn,  wheat,  beef  scrap,  crack- 
ed bone,  oyster  shell,  and  grit  where  they  could  help  them- 
selves whenever  they  desired  to  do  so.  Grit,  bone,  oyster  shell, 
and  clean  water  were  always  supplied.  There  were  no  regular 
hours  for  feeding,  but  care  was  taken  that  the  troughs  were 
never  empty. 

In  1905  another  trough  containing  a  dry  mash  consisting  of 
I  part  wheat  bran,  2  parts  corn  meal,  I  part  middlings,  and  I 
part  beef  scrap  was  used  in  addition  to  those  containing  the 
grains.  The  results  were  satisfactory.  The  labor  of  feeding 
was  far  less  than  that  required  by  any  other  method  tried.  The 
birds  did  not  hang  around  the  troughs  and  overeat,  but  helped 
themselves,  a  little  at  a  time,  and  ranged  off,  hunting  or  playing, 
and  coming  back  again  to  the  food  supply  at  the  troughs  when 
so  inclined.  There  was  no  rushing  or  crowding  about  the  at- 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  43 

tendant,  as  is  usual  at  feeding  time  where  large  numbers  are 
kept  together.  While  the  birds  liked  the  beef  scrap,  they  did 
not  overeat  of  it.  During  the  range  season,  from  June  to  the 
close  of  October,  the  birds  ate  just  about  i  pound  of  the  scrap 
to  10  pounds  of  the  cracked  corn  and  wheat.  This  is  practically 
the  proportion  eaten  when  the  moist  mash  was  used. 

THE  FEEDING  TROUGH. 

The  difficulty  of  keeping  the  feed  clean  and  dry  during  con- 
tinued   exposure    is   nearly   overcome   by    using    troughs   with 


FIG.  8.  Chicken  feeding  trough,  accessible  from  both  sides,  with  cover  on. 

slatted  sides  and  broad,  detachable  roofs  (figs.  8  and  9).  The 
troughs  which  were  formerly  in  use  at  the  station  were  from 
6  to  10  feet  long,  with  the  sides  5  inches  high.  The  lath  slats  are 
2  inches  apart,  and  the  troughs  are  16  inches  high  from  floor  to 
roof.  The  roofs  project  about  2  inches  at  the  sides  and  effectu- 
ally keep  out  the  rain  except  when  high  winds  prevail. 

The  roof  is  very  easily  removed  by  lifting  one  end  and  sliding 
it  endwise  on  the  opposite  gable  end  on  which  it  rests,  as  shown 
in  figure  9.  The  trough  can  then  be  filled  and  the  roof  drawn 
back  into  place  without  lifting  it.  This  arrangement  is  econom- 
ical of  feed,  keeping  it  in  good  condition  and  avoiding  waste. 
When  dry  mash  is  used  there  may  be  considerable  waste  by  the 


44 


METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 


finer  parts  being  blown  away,  and  on  this  account  the  dry-mash 
should  be  put  in  a  sheltered  place  out  of  the  reach  of  wind. 

AN   IMPROVED  RANGE   FEED  TROUGH. 

The  type  of  slatted  feed  trough  described  above  is  open  to 
certain  objections.  It  is  very  difficult  to  keep  the  grain  dry  in 
it  in  wet  stormy  weather.  Furthermore,  the  fact  that  very 
small  chickens  cannot  use  this  type  of  trough  entails  additional 
labor.  There  must  be  flat  boards  with  narrow  rims  for  the  very 
young  chickens  in  adition  to  the  range  troughs  for  the  older 


FIG.  9.     Chicken  feeding  trough  with  cover  removed. 

chicks.  An  improved  range  trough  obviates  both  of  these  dis- 
advantages and  has  other  points  to  recommend  it.  The  essential 
features  of  this  trough  are  shown  in  Figs.  10  to  12.  The  im- 
provements consist,  first,  in  making  the  slatted  front  of  the 
trough  removable  as  a  whole,  leaving  then  a  flat  board  bottom 
with  a  rail  in  front  of  it  an  inch  high  to  hold  the  grain  in  place. 
With  the  slat  front  removed  the  trough  duplicates  the  condi- 
tions of  the  flat  chick  feeding  board,  used  by  many  poultry 
keepers  for  feeding  chicks  during  the  first  two  or  three  weeks 
of  life.  As  the  chicks  grow  older  this  slatted  front  can  be  put 
on  the  trough  and  held  in  place  with  the  hooks  and  eyes  shown 
in  the  photograph. 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


45 


I 

•S 

g) 

oJ 


'I 


46  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

A  second  improvement  consists  in  hinging  the  top  rather  than 
making  it  in  one  piece  and  removing  as  a  whole,  as  was  the  case 
with  the  older  feed  troughs  at  this  Station.  It  will  be  noted 
that  this  feed  trough  is  open  to  the  birds  only  from  one  side. 
The  reason  for  this  arrangement  is  that  it  is  designed  to  place 
the  feed  troughs  in  holes  cut  in  the  longitudinal  fences  in  the 
range  yards,  with  the  back  part  of  the  trough  and  the  hinged 
cover  extending  into  a  long  walk  running  the  whole  length  of 
the  range  behind  the  yards.  In  this  way  the  troughs  can  be 
rilled  from  the  outside  without  the  necessity  of  going  into  the 
yard,  opening  gates,  etc.,  thus  reducing  the  labor  cost  of  opera- 
tion considerably. 

Of  course  it  is  entirely  possible  to  make  troughs  in  accordance 
with  the  principle  of  this  improvement,  with  removable  slatted 
openings  on  both  sides,  to  be  set  down  in  the  middle  of  the 
yards  so  that  the  birds  can  get  at  the  feed  from  both  directions. 

The  dimensions  of  the  troughs  as  used  here  are  those  given  in 
the  following  table.  It  is,  of  course,  not  essential  that  these 

dimensions  be  absolutely  followed  in  building  feed  troughs 
according  to  this  principle,  particularly  the  length  dimensions. 
The  dimensions  of  the  boards  forming  the  roof,  however,  and 
their  angle,  are  of  more  or  less  importance  since  actual  trial 
has  shown  that  when  built  as  here  pictured  and  described  the 
grain  will  keep  dry  in  the  trough  even  in  driving  showers  or 
storms.  A  strip  of  canvas  keeps  the  hinged  joint  of  the  roof 
dry. 

Dimensions  of  Improved  Feed  Trough. 

Length    8  ft.  4  inches 

Height  to  peak i    "    6 

Width  at  bottom .  3 

Width  at  widest  point 9i     " 

Height  of  front  opening 12^ 

Width  of  roof  boards  (front  and  back  same)  ...  n       " 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


47 


48  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

FEEDING  THE  COCKERELS  FOR  MARKET. 

A't  the  Maine  Station  many  of  the  cockerels  are  to  be  used  for 
breeding  purposes,  and  they  are  fed  in  flocks  of  about  TOO  on 
the  range  in  about  the  same  way  as  the  pullets.  The  dry-feed 
method  is  now  used  for  them  as  satisfactorily  as  for  the  pullets. 


FIG.  12.  End  and  top  view  of  trough  with  cover  open  and  slatted 
front  removed.  Note  hook  which  holds  front  in  place. 

A  very  large  proportion  of  the  cockerels  raised  in  New  Eng- 
land are  sent  to  the  market  alive,  without  being  fattened.  Quite 
extended  experiments  at  the  Maine  Station  with  many  birds  in 
different  years  indicate  very  clearly  that  keeping  the  cockerels 
for  a  few  weeks  with  special  feeding  will  add  materially  to  the 
selling  price.  Not  infrequently  this  will  make  the  difference 
between  loss  from  the  low  price  obtained  for  slow-selling  un  fat- 
tened birds  and  the  profit  from  comparatively  quick-selling 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  49 

specially  fed  birds  at  a  much  higher  price.  The  higher  price  is 
due  partly  to  the  increased  weight  and  partly  to  the  superior 
quality  of  the  well-covered  soft-fleshed  chickens.  As  the  bul- 
letins containing  the  results  of  these  feeding  experiments  with 
cockerels  are  out  of  print,  the  following  brief  summary  of  the 
results  obtained  is  given  : 

The  number  of  pounds  of  grain  required  to  produce  I  pound 
of  gain  in  fattening  cockerels  was  ascertained  in  experiments 
comparing  (i)  the  effect  of  housing,  (2)  the  effect  of  age,  and 
(3)  the  effect  of  skim  milk.  The  grain  mixture  used  in  these 
series  of  experiments  was  the  same,  consisting  of  100  pounds 
of  corn  meal,  100  pounds  of  wheat  middlings,  and  40  pounds 
of  meat  meal.  This  was  fed  as  a  porridge  thick  enough  to 
drop  but  not  to  run  from  a  spoon. 

The  French  and  English  fatteners  who  make  a  specialty  of 
the  business,  fattening  thousands  of  chickens  each  year,  con- 
fine the  chickens  in  small  coops.  The  coops  used  at  the  Maine 
Station  gave  a  floor  space  of  1 6  by  23  inches,  in  each  of  which 
4  chickens  were  placed.  The  coops  were  constructed  of  laths 
with  closed-end  partitions  of  boards.  The  floors,  sides,  and 
tops  were  of  laths  placed  three-quarters  of  an  inch  apart.  By 
simply  moving  the  pens  thus  constructed  the  floors  were  kept 
clean.  V-shaped  troughs  with  3-inch  sides  were  placed  in 
front  and  about  2  inches  above  the  level  of  the  floors  of  the 
coops.  Cockerels  thus  fed  were  compared  with  others  kept  in 
small  houses  9  by  n  feet  in  size,  with  an  attached  yard  20  feet 
square.  The  yard  was  entirely  free  from  anything  that  would 
serve  as  green  feed.  Twenty  birds  were  put  in  each  of  these 
houses.  As  a  result  of  experiments  with  fattening  286  birds  it 
was  found  that  on  the  average  7.9  pounds  of  grain  were  re- 
quired to  produce  i  pound  of  gain  in  the  case  of  birds  fed  in 
the  coops,  and  5.9  pounds  in  the  case  of  those  fed  in  the  small 
houses  and  yards. 

An  experiment  with  150  birds  when  they  were  4  months  old 
showed  that  they  required  4.9  pounds  of  grain  to  produce  I 
pound  of  gain,  while  birds  from  the  same  stock,  when  they 
were  6  months  old,  required  7.4  pounds  of  grain  to  produce  i 
pound  of  gain. 


5O  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

An  experiment  with  68  birds  showed  that  when  the  porridge 
was  wet  with  skim  milk  only  4.3  pounds  of  grain  were  required 
to  produce  I  pound  of  gain,  against  5.3  pounds  when  the  por- 
ridge was  wet  with  water.  Eight  pounds  of  skim  milk  was 
used  with  each  pound  of  grain. 

These  experiments  warrant  the  following  conclusions  :  ( i ) 
As  great  gains  are  made  just  as  cheaply  and  more  easily  when 
the  chickens  are  put  into  small  houses  and  yards  as  when  they 
are  fed  in  small  lots  in  lattice  coops  just  large  enough  to  hold 
them.  (2)  Four  weeks  is  about  the  limit  of  profitable  feeding, 
both  individually  and  in  flocks.  (3)  Chickens  gain  faster  while 
young.  Birds  that  are  from  150  to  175  days  old  have  uniformly 
given  comparatively  small  gains.  (4)  The  practice  of  success- 
ful poultrymen  selling  chickens  at  the  earliest  marketable  age 
is  well  founded.  The  spring  chicken  sold  at  Thanksgiving  time 
is  an  expensive  product. 

The  experiments  clearly  indicate  that  it  is  profitable  to  fatten 
chickens  in  cheaply  constructed  sheds  or  in  large  coops  with 
small  runs  for  about  four  weeks  and  then  send  them  to  market 
dressed.  In  quality  the  well-covered,  soft-fleshed  chickens  are 
so  much  superior  to  the  same  birds  not  specially  prepared  that 
the  former  will  be  sought  for  at  a  higher  price.  The  dairy 
farmer  is  particularly  well  prepared  to  carry  on  this  work,  as 
he  has  the  skim  milk  which  these  experiments  show  to  be  of  so 
great  importance  in  obtaining  cheap  rapid  growth  and  superior 
quality  of  flesh. 


FEEDING  THE  LAYING  PULLETS. 

The  feed  of  all  adult  birds,  whether  pullets  or  not,  consists 
of  two  essential  parts:  (a)  the  whole  or  cracked  grains  scat- 
tered in  the  litter,  and  (b)  the  mixture  of  dry  ground  grains 
which  has  come  to  be  generally  known  as  a  dry  mash.  These 
two  component  parts  of  the  ration  and  the  methods  of  feeding 
them  will  be  considered  separately.  In  addition  to  the  grains 
and  dry  mash,  oyster  shell,  dry  cracked  bone,  grit,  and  char- 
coal are  kept  in  slatted  troughs,  and  are  accessible  at  all  times. 
Plenty  of  clean  water  is  furnished.  About  5  pounds  of  clover 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  51 

hay  cut  into  I -2-inch  lengths  is  fed  daily  to  each  100  birds 
in  the  breeding  pens  during  the  breeding  season.  When  the 
wheat,  oats,  and  cracked  corn  are  given,  the  birds  are  always 
ready  and  anxious  for  them,  and  they  scratch  in  the  litter  for 
the  very  last  kernel  before  going  to  the  trough  where  an  abun- 
dance of  feed  is  in  store. 

It  is  very  evident  that  the  hens  like  the  broken  and  whole 
grains  better  than  the  mixture  of  the  fine,  dry  materials;  yet 
they  by  no  means  dislike  the  latter,  for  they  help  themselves  to 
it,  a  mouthful  or  two  at  a  time,  whenever  they  seem  to  need  it, 
and  never  go  to  bed  with  empty  crops,  so  far  as  noted.  They 
apparently  do  not  like  it  well  enough  to  gorge  themselves  with 
it,  and  sit  down,  loaf,  get  over  fat,  and  lay  soft-shelled  eggs,  as 
is  so  commonly  the  case  with  Plymouth  Rocks  when  they  are 
given  warm  morning  mashes  in  troughs. 

Some  of  the  advantages  of  this  method  of  feeding  are  that 
the  mash  is  put  in  the  hoppers  at  any  convenient  time,  only 
guarding  against  an  exhaustion  of  the  supply,  and  the  entire 
avoidance  of  the  mobbing  that  always  occurs  at  trough  feeding 
when  that  is  made  a  meal  of  the  day,  whether  it  be  at  morning 
or  evening.  There  are  no  tailings  to  be  gathered  up  or  wasted, 
as  is  common  when  a  full  meal  of  mash  is  given  at  night.  The 
labor  is  very  much  less,  enabling  a  person  to  care  for  more 
birds  than  when  the  regular  evening  meal  is  given. 

Taking  first  the  dry  grains,  the  following  may  be  said  in 
regard  to  the  method  in  which  they  are  fed :  Early  in  the  morn- 
ing for  each  100  hens  4  quarts  of  whole  or  cracked  corn  is 
scattered  on  the  litter,  which  is  6  to  8  inches  deep  on  the  floor. 
This  is  not  mixed  into  the  litter,  for  the  straw  is  dry  and  light, 
and  enough  of  the  grain  is  hidden  so  the  birds  commence 
scratching  for  it  almost  immediately.  At  10  o'clock  they  are 
fed  in  the  same  way  2  quarts  of  wheat  and  2  quarts  of  oats. 
This  is  all  of  the  regular  feeding  that  is  done. 

When  corn  is  used  freely  and  made  a  prominent  factor  in  the 
ration  it  has  been  thought  best  to  have  the  kernels  broken,  so 
that  in  hunting  and  scratching  for  the  small  pieces  the  birds 
might  get  the  exercise  needed  to  keep  themselves  in  health  and 


52  METHODS    OF    POUI/TRY    MANAGEMENT. 

vigor.  It  was  reasoned  that  even  a  small  quantity  of  whole 
corn  could  be  readily  seen  and  picked  up  from  the  straw  litter 
with  little  exertion,  and  that  the  vices  of  luxury  and  idleness 
would  follow.  In  order  to  test  this  view  an  experiment  was 
carried  out  at  the  Station  in  the  winter  of  1906-7  in  which 
whole  corn  was  substituted  for  cracked  corn  in  the  ration  of 
500  laying  pullets.  A  control  lot  of  500  received  cracked  corn. 
All  other  conditions  affecting  the  two  lots  were  kept  as  nearly 
identical  as  possible.  The  result  of  the  experiment  was  that 
there  was  no  appreciable  difference  in  regard  to  either  egg 
production,  health,  or  general  well-being  between  the  two 
flocks  of  birds. 

The  litter  which  the  Station  now  uses  for  its  houses  in  prefer- 
ence to  all  others  which  have  been  tried,  consists  of  a  mixture 
of  dry  pine  shavings  and  straw.  The  shavings  can  be  obtained 
in  this  part  of  the  country  from  box  mills  in  bales,  which  are 
sold  at  a  price  of  from  5  to  10  cents  per  bale.  These  shavings  are 
spread  on  the  floor  of  the  pen  to  a  depth  of  some  5  to  7  inches. 
From  6  to  8  bales  will  cover  the  floor  of  a  pen  which  accommo- 
dates from  loo  to  125  birds.  On  top  of  these  shavings  is  spread 
a  thin  layer  of  straw.  Straw  which  has  not  been  baled  is  pre- 
ferred because  it  is  less  liable  to  be  broken  and  will  consequently 
wear  longer  in  the  pen.  This  combination  of  straw  and  shav- 
ings gives  excellent  satisfaction  as  a  litter.  The  straw  serves 
the  purpose  of  protecting  the  shavings  so  that  they  last  a  longer 
time  than  would  otherwise  be  the  case  before  they  are  finally 
worked  up  into  a, mass  of  fine  material  which  packs  down  and 
becomes  damp.  The  shavings  became  damp  much  less  quickly 
than  does  a  litter  of  straw  alone.  This  is  because  they  are 
finer,  and  the  birds  can  keep  them  worked  over  much  more 
thoroughly.  This  constantly  exposes  and  dries  out  new  portions 
of  the  mass  of  litter.  Using  this  combination  of  shavings  and 
straw  it  is  not  usually  found  necessary  to  change  the  litter  in 
the  pens  oftener  than  once  in  three  months. 

It  is  in  regard  to  the  dry  mash  portion  of  the  ration  in  which 
the  changes  already  referred  to  have  been  made.  The  dry 
mash  which  was  formerly  used  at  the  Station  had  the  following 
composition : 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  53 

Pounds. 

Wheat  bran  200 

Corn    meal    100 

Daisy  flour  (or  other  low-grade  flour)   100 

Gluten  meal  or  brewers'  grains  100 

Linseed  meal 100 

Beef    scrap    100 

The  experience  of  the  Station  with  this  mash  extending  as  it 
has  over  a  number  of  years  has  indicated  that  it  was  somewhat 
too  rich.  The  relatively  large  amount  of  such  concentrated 
feeds  as  linseed  meal  and  gluten  meal  seemed  to  make  too  rich 
a  ration  for  the  well-being  of  the  fowls.  During  the  years 
when  this  mash  was  fed  more  or  less  difficulty  was  always  ex- 
perienced with  liver  troubles  in  the  birds.  Birds  died  with  all 
the  symptoms  that  would  be  expected  to  come  from  indigestion 
arising  from  feeding  too  rich  food. 

In  planning  the  new  dry  mash  ration  consideration  was  given 
to  the  physiological  conditions  under  which  the  birds  developed 
and  under  which  they  were  placed  in  the  laying  houses.  It  is 
evident  that  the  bringing  of  the  birds  in  from  the  range  upon 
which  they  have  grown  from  little  chickens,  into  the  laying 
houses,  is  apt  to  be  a  very  violent  and  abrupt  transition.  It 
has  seemed  in  studying  the  birds  in  the  fall  of  the  year  that  this 
change  was  an -important  time  in  the  life  of  the  bird,  and  that 
the  results  during  the  subsequent  winter  with  reference  to  egg 
production  depended  much  upon  the  way  the  transition  from 
range  conditions  to  the  laying  house  was  made.  It  seemed 
advisable  both  on  general  grounds  and  from  observation  of  the 
birds  themselves  to  make  this  change  as  gradual  as  possible. 
With  this  idea  in  mind  the  pullets  have  been  brought  into  the 
houses  from  the  range  much  earlier  during  the  past  few  years 
than  was  the  custom  before.  It  is  the  custom  at  the  present 
time  to  bring  in  the  pullets  from  the  range  as  soon  as  possible 
after  the  first  of  September. 

When  the  pullets  are  brought  in  as  early  as  this  it  is  not,  of 
course,  advisable  to  shut  them  up  entirely  in  the  houses  at  once. 
On  the  contrary,  the  work  is  planned  in  such  a  way  that  there 
is  always  a  freshly  seeded  yard  full  of  green  grass  for  the  birds 
to  run  in  after  they  are  brought  into  the  house  until  cold 


54  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

weather  sets  in  in  the  fall.  In  other  words,  the  birds  are 
brought  from  free  range  into  a  condition  of  restricted  range, 
but  with  better  pasturage  on  the  restricted  than  on  free  range. 
The  yards  are  freshly  seeded  and  have  not  been  trampled  down 
or  burned  and  dried  out  by  the  sun,  as  is  the  grass  on  the  open 
range  from  which  the  birds  are  taken.  In  this  way  the  attempt 
is  made  to  have  the  transition  from  open  range  conditions  to 
house  conditions  as  gradual  as  possible.  After  about  two 
months,  or  occasionally  even  a  little  longer  of  restricted  range, 
the  birds  are  finally  shut  up  in  the  curtain  front  house  for  the 
winter  season. 

Further  in  accordance  with  this  idea  of  gradual  change  it  is 
thought  wise  not  to  put  the  pullets  which  are  brought  in  from 
the  free  range  conditions  abruptly  on  to  the  heavy,  forced- 
laying  mash  which  it  seems  to  be  necessary  for  them  to  have 
during  the  winter  months  if  they  are  to  do  their  best  in  the  way 
of  egg  production.  It  has  been  said  that  a  hen  will  not  lay  her 
best  unless  she  is  on  full  feeding.  This  is  quite  true,  but  it  is 
probably  equally  true  that  a  great  deal  of  harm  can  be  done  to 
a  pullet  in  regard  to  her  future  egg  production  by  abruptly 
bringing  her  from  free  range  conditions  into  restricted  yards  or 
to  entire  confinement  in  the  house  and  putting  her  on  a  heavy, 
rich  laying  mash  like  the  one  which  was  formerly  fed  at  this 
Station.  On  the  contrary,  it  seems  reasonable  to  bring  the  birds 
more  gradually  on  to  this  rich  ration.  It  is  in  accordance  with 
this  idea  that  the  dry  mash  feed  which  is  now  used  at  the  Sta- 
tion has  been  planned.  The  formulas  and  method  of  feeding 
this  new  dry  mash  are  given  below.  It  will  be  noted  that  the 
mash  is  made  richer  in  successive  months.  These  formulas  are 
planned  on  the  assumption  that  the  pullets  will  be  brought  into 
the  winter  laying  quarters  sometime  during  the  month  of  Sep- 
tember. 


MAINE  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION.  55 

Composition  of  Dry  Mash  Fed  to  Laying  Pullets. 
First  month  in  laying  house  (September)  :— 

Bran    300  Ibs. 

Corn    meal    100  Ibs. 

Daisy  flour  (or  other  low-grade  flour)   100  Ibs. 

Meat  scrap   100  Ibs. 

Second  month  in  laying  house  (October)  : — 

Bran    200  Ibs. 

Corn  meal  100  Ibs. 

Daisy  flour,  or  other  low-grade  flour  100  Ibs. 

Gluten  meal    100  Ibs. 

Meat  scrap   100  Ibs. 

Third  month  in  the  laying  house  (November)  : — 

The  mash  has  the  same  composition  as  that  of  the  second 
month  given  above  with  the  addition  of  50  pounds  of  linseed 
meal. 

Fourth  month  in  the  laying  house : — 

The  mash  has  the  same  composition  as  that  of  the  second 
month  given  above. 

Fifth  month  in  the  laying  house: — 

The  mash  has  the  same  composition  as  that  of  the  third 
month  as  given  above. 

From  this  time  on  50  pounds  of  linseed  meal  are  put  into  the 
mash  as  given  for  the  second  month  above  every  alternate 
month.  That  is  to  say,  one  month  linseed  meal  is  fed  and  the 
next  month  it  is  not. 

This  dry  mash  made  as  described  above  is  kept  before  the 
birds  all  the  time  in  open  hoppers  of  the  type  described  farther 
on. 

The  advantages  which  it  is  believed  have  resulted  from  this 
method  of  feeding  the  laying  pullets  are  two  fold :  first,  in  the 
good  effect  on  the  vitality  of  the  birds,  and,  second,  in  its  effect 
on  the  evenness  of  egg  production  during  the  winter  months. 
It  is  a  fact  well  known  to  poultrymen  that  if  pullets  are  too 
rapidly  forced  for  egg  production  in  the  early  fall  there  is  a 
marked  tendency  for  them  to  moult  during  the  winter  at  just 
the  time  when  they  should  be  doing  their  best  work  in  egg  pro- 
duction. Since  adopting  the  method  of  feeding  the  pullets  de- 


56  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

scribed  above,  not  only  have  the  birds  been  much  freer  of 
digestive  troubles  and  diseases  involving  the  liver,  but  also  there 
has  been  no  moulting  in  the  early  winter  after  a  short  spurt  of 
egg  production  in  the  fall  months.  On  the  contrary  the  egg 
production  on  this  plan  begins  in  September  and  October  and 
gradually  and  steadily  increases  through  the  winter  months. 
During  the  past  two  years  while  this  method  of  feeding  has 
been  used,  there  has  been  hardly  a  pullet  in  winter  moult, 
whereas  on  the  old  system  of  feeding  such  birds  were  common 
every  year. 

FEEDING  THE    HENS,   COCKERELS  AND  COCKS   KEPT  OVER  THE 
WINTER    FOR    BREEDING    PURPOSES. 

Observations  made  in  connection  with  the  work  of  this  Sta- 
tion, as  well  as  a  study  of  the  literature  which  exists  upon  the 
subject,  have  led  to  the  opinion  that  in  order  to  get  the  best 
results  in  respect  to  the  fertility  and  hatching  quality  of  eggs 
it  is  not  desirable  to  feed  birds  which  are  to  be  used  as  breeders 
the  heavy  laying  ration  which  is  used  to  force  egg  production 
during  the  winter  months  in  pullets.  The  feeding  of  such  rich 
food  has  a  tendency,  it  is  believed,  to  reduce  or  impair  the  fer- 
tility and  hatching  quality  of  the  eggs.  Therefore,  a  plan  of 
feeding  birds  kept  to  be  used  as  breeders  has  been  devised  with 
the  idea  of  getting  over  this  difficulty  so  far  as  possible.  This 
method  of  feeding  is  used  for  old  hens,  cockerels  and  cock 
birds  which  are  kept  from  one  season  to  another  for  breeding. 
The  aim  is  to  keep  these  birds  on  as  light  a  ration  as  is  con- 
sistent with  the  maintenance  of  good  condition  until  just  before 
the  beginning  of  the  breeding  season  when  they  are  to  be  used 
and  then  to  put  them  on  a  more  stimulating  and  richer  ration. 
The  scratch  food  given  to  this  breeding  stock  is  the  same  as 
that  given  to  the  pullets,  namely,  corn  for  the  first  morning  feed 
and  a  mixture  of  wheat  and  oats  for  the  second  feed  of  the 
day,  both  scattered  in  the  litter.  If,  however,  there  is  any  ten- 
dency for  the  yearling  hens  kept  as  breeders  to  get  unduly  fat 
during  the  winter  corn  is  not  fed  as  a  litter  grain.  The  hens, 
under  such  circumstances,  are  simply  given  the  mixture  of 
wheat  and  oats  at  both  feedings. 

The  dry  mash  used  for  these  birds  kept  as  breeders  has  the 
following  composition : — 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  57 

Bran    400  Ibs. 

Corn  meal  5°  Ibs. 

Daisy  flour,  or  other  low-grade  flour  50  Ibs. 

Meat  scrap    100  Ibs. 

Birds  kept  over  from  one  season  to  another  are  managed  in 
the  following  way.  The  birds  completing  their  pullet  year 
which  are  to  be  kept  as  breeders  are  continued  on  the  usual 
pullet  ration  until  after  they  have  finished  their  moult  in  the 
early  fall,  usually  in  September  or  early  October  with  the  birds 
here.  Immediately  after  the  moult  is  over  and  the  hens  are 
well  feathered  out  they  are  put  on  the  dry  mash  ration  given 
above.  They  are  fed  in  the  way  described  until  the  beginning 
of  tbeir  second  breeding  season.  At  this  Station  the  breeding 
pens  are  usually  mated  up  about  the  first  of  February.  During 
the  breeding  season  all  birds,  both  hens  and  pullets  are  fed  the 
following  mash : 

Wheat  bran    200  Ibs. 

Corn   meal    100  Ibs. 

Daisy  flour  100  Ibs. 

Meat    scrap    50  Ibs. 

Dry   bone   meal    5°  Ibs. 

The  experience  of  the  Station  indicates  that  by  reducing 
animal  food  to  a  minimum  it  is  possible  to  improve  markedly 
the  hatching  qualities  of  the  eggs.  Besides  the  dry  mash  the 
breeders  are  fed  wheat,  corn  and  oats  in  the  same  way  as  the 
laying  pullets.  Further  they  are  given  an  abundance  of  green 
food,  always  including  green  sprouted  oats. 

GREEN   FOOD  FOR   POULTRY. 

During  recent  years  an  increasing  amount  of  attention  has 
been  paid  by  poultrymen  everywhere  to  the  furnishing  of  green 
food  to  their  fowls  during  the  winter  months,  when  it  is  im- 
possible, in  northern  parts  of  the  country,  at  least,  for  the  birds 
to  get  fresh  succulent  pasturage  out  of  doors.  General  experi- 
ence seems  to  teach  that  an  addition  of  green  succulent  food 
to  the  ration  of  laying  hens  tends  to  keep  them  in  better  physi- 
cal condition  and  helps  towards  a  better  egg  production.  On  the 


58  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

poultry  plant  of  the  Maine  Station  considerable  attention  has 
been  given  to  this  matter  of  supplying  green  and  succulent  food 
and  as  a  result  of  experience  extending  now  over  a  number  of 
years,  a  satisfactory  scheme  of  furnishing  this  necessary  part 
of  the  ration  under  our  conditions  has  been  worked  out. 

To  be  satisfactory  not  only  must  the  green  food  given  to 
poultry  be  of  the  proper  kind  to  give  good  results  in  egg  pro- 
duction, but  also  it  must  be  something  which  can  be  produced 
and  handled  at  small  cost  Furthermore  a  factor  which  is  fre- 
quently lost  sight  of  is  that  fowls  need  something  besides  suc- 
culence in  their  so-called  "green"  food.  There  is  a  distinction 
between  a  succulent  fodder  and  a  "green  food"  in  the  strict 
sense.  One  can  supply  succulence  in  the  form  of  root  crops 
such  as  mangolds.  A  careful  consideration  of  the  case,  however, 
indicates  that  apparently  the  fundamental  need  of  the  fowls  is 
not  for  succulence  as  such,  but  rather  for  the  tonic  effect  which 
is  produced  by  green  plants,  probably  primarily  because  of  the 
presence  of  chlorophyll.  In  feeding  fowls  for  high  egg  produc- 
tion it  is  necessary  that  they  be  given  a  ration  rich  in  protein. 
Only  fowls  of  strong  constitution,  and  with  thoroughly  sound 
digestive  systems,  can  handle  the  heavy  laying  rations  carrying 
meat  scrap  and  other  protein  concentrates,  which  are  now 
so  widely  used  by  poultrymen  for  egg  production  with  success- 
ful results.  On  these  heavy  rations  there  is  always  a  tendency 
for  the  birds'  livers  to  become  impaired  in  function,  and  ulti- 
mately to  become  enlarged  and  diseased.  As  the  matter  has 
been  studied  here  it  would  appear  that  one  of  the  chief  func- 
tions of  green  food  in  the  ration  is  to  counteract  this  tendency 
of  the  digestive  system,  and  especially  the  liver,  to  break  down 
under  the  strain  of  handling  heavy  laying  rations  over  a  long 
period  of  time.  It  would  appear  that  the  green  food  given  to 
poultry  acts  primarily  rather  as  a  mild  tonic  than  as  a  food  in 
the  proper  sense  There  seems  to  be  very  little  of  this  tonic 
effect  produced  from  succulent  non-green  foods  like  mangolds. 

The  practical  problem  then  becomes  to  devise  a  system  which 
shall  insure  a  supply  of  green  food  for  the  birds  at  all  seasons 
of  the  year.  The  following  system  of  rotation  in  the  green 
food  supply  has  been  in  use  for  several  years  on  the  poultry 
plant  here  with  satisfactory  results.  It  should  be  said  that, 
owing  to  the  small  area  of  ground  available  for  the  poultry 


MAINE      AGRICULTURAL      EXPERIMENT      STATION.  59 

work  at  the  Station  in  relation  to  the  number  of  birds  it  is 
necessary  to  carry,  green  food  must  be  added  to  the  ration  prac- 
tically throughout  the  year,  not  only  for  the  adult  fowls  in  the 
laying  houses,  but  also  for  the  chicks  growing  on  the  range. 

Beginning  in  the  early  fall  when  the  pullets  are  put  in  the 
laying  house  they  are  given  green  corn  fodder  cut  fine  in  a 
fodder  cutter.  Stalks,  leaves  and  ears  are  cut  together  in  pieces 
averaging  about  1-2  inch  in  length.  The  birds  eat  this  chopped 
corn  fodder  greedily.  It  is  one  of  the  best  green  foods  for 
poultry  that  we  have  yet  been  able  to  find.  Its  usefulness  is 
limited  only  by  the  season  within  which  it  is  possible  to  get  it. 
The  feeding  of  corn  fodder  is  continued  until  the  frost  kills  the 
plants. 

When  the  corn  can  no  longer  be  used  cabbage  is  fed.  The 
supply  of  this  usually  lasts  through  December.  In  the  event 
of  the  supply  of  cabbage  failing  before  it  is  desirable  to  start 
the  oat  sprouter*  the  interval  is  filled  out  by  the  use  of  man- 
golds. From  about  January  15  to  May  15  green  sprouted  oats 
from  the  source  of  green  food.  From  about  May  15  until  the 
corn  has  grown  enough  to  cut,  fresh  clover  from  the  range  is 
used.  During  the  summer  the  growing  chicks  on  the  range 
are  given  rape  (Dwarf  Essex)  and  green  corn  fodder  cut  as 
described  above,  to  supplement  the  grass  of  the  range,  which 
rather  rapidly  dries  out  and  becomes  worthless  as  a  source  of 
green  food  under  our  conditions.  The  very  young  chicks  in  the 
brooders  are  given  the  tops  only  of  green  sprouted  oats  chopped 
up  fine. 

Dwarf  Essex  rape  is  an  excellent  source  of  green  food  for 
poultry  but  it  must  be  fed  with  great  caution  to  birds  which  are 
laying  because  if  eaten  in  any  considerable  amounts  it  will 
color  the  yolks  of  the  eggs  green  with  disastrous  results  in 
the  market. 

THE  PREPARATION  OF  GREEN  SPROUTED  OATS. 

Green  sprouted  oats  have  been  very  widely  exploited  in 
recent  years  as  a  green  food  for  poultry.  There  are  some  so- 
called  "poultry"  systems  on  the  market  which  really  consist  of 


*For  description  of  the  method  of  sprouting  oats  used  at  the  Station 
see  below. 


6O  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

very  little  else  than  the  use  of  this  food.  The  first  experiments 
with  this  material  at  the  Maine  Agricultural  Experiment  Sta- 
tion were  not  satisfactory.  It  was  found  difficult  to  get  the 
oats  to  make  a  sufficiently  quick  growth.  Experience  here  has 
indicated  that  in  order  to  make  a  satisfactory  green  food  the 
oats  must  be  grown  very  quickly.  In  order  to  get  quick  growth 
it  is  necessary  to  have  three  things : — first,  warmth ;  second, 
plenty  of  moisture;  and  third,  sunlight.  After  a  number  of 
experiments  to  get  the  right  combination  of  these  three  factors 
the  plan  to  be  described  was  finally  worked  out  and  has  proved 
very  satisfactory. 

There  is  in  connection  with  the  poultry  plant  a  hot  water 
heating  system  which  has  a  3-inch  out-go  pipe.  This  out-go  pipe 
as  it  leaves  the  heater  passes  along  the  rear  wall  of  a  small 
room  which  was  formerly  used  as  a  grain  storage  room.  To 
provide  a  place  in  which  to  sprout  oats  the  back  part  of  this 
room  was  partitioned  oft"  as  a  closet  inclosing  the  3-inch  hot 
water  pipe.  The  partition  wall  which  forms  the  front  of  this 
closet  consists  of  glass  doors,  made  from  regular  storm  window 
sash,  hinged  so  as  to  swing  open  as  an  ordinary  door  does. 
These  glass  doors  face  towards  the  south  side  of  the  building 
which  has  a  window  directly  in  front  of  the  doors.  Through- 
out the  day  the  closet  gets  plenty  of  light.  The  dimensions  of 
this  sprouting  closet  are  as  follows: — 

Length    9  ft.  3  inches 

Depth  2  ft.  6  inches 

Height 6  ft. 

The  place  of  shelves  in  this  closet  is  taken  by  large,  square 
green-house  flats  made  of  7-8-inch  stuff.  These  flats  have  the 
following  dimensions : — 

Length     2  ft.  5  inches   (inside) 

Breadth   2  ft.  5  inches  (inside) 

Depth  2  inches  (inside) 

The  length  of  the  closet  is  such  as  just  to  accommodate  three 
tiers  of  these  flats,  which  slide  on  supports  so  that  they  can  be 
moved  in  or  out  or  turned  around  to  suit  the  convenience  of  the 
operator,  and  the  needs  of  the  sprouting  grain.  These  flats  set 


MAINE      AGRICULTURAL      EXPERIMENT      STATION. 


61 


62 


METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 


15  inches  apart  (i.  e.,  vertically).  There  can  be  accommodated 
four  rows  of  flats,  three  in  a  row,  in  the  closet  at  one  time. 
A  number  of  holes  are  bored  in  the  bottom  of  each  one  of  the 
flats  in  order  to  drain  off  the  surface  moisture  which  comes  with 
the  wetting  of  the  oats. 


B 
FIG.  14.    A,  empty  flat.     B,  started  to  sprout. 

The  arrangement  of  the  sprouting  closet  and  the  flats  is 
shown  in  Figs.  13  and  14. 

The  advantage  of  the  closet  arrangement  described  is  that  it 
enables  one  to  control  the  three  necessary  factors  of  heat,  mois- 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  63 

ture  and  light,  quite  completely.  In  this  closet  it  is  easily  pos- 
sible to  maintain  a  temperature  which  does  not  run  at  any  time 
below  70  degrees.  The  closet  being  perfectly  tight  it  is  possi- 
ble to  saturate  the  air  with  moisture  quite  easily  and  virtually 
convert  the  whole  space  into  a  great  moist  chamber.  With  this 
arrangement  one  is  able  to  grow  oats  from  4  to  6  inches  high 
in  one  week's  time.  The  only  difficulty  with  which  one  has  to 
contend  is  the  matter  of  mould.  There  is  always  a  tendency 
for  the  oats  to  mould  in  the  sprouting  process.  The  only  way 
in  which  it  has  been  found  possible  to  control  this  mould  is  by 
thoroughly  cleaning  the  flats  after  each  time  when  they  are  used. 
After  a  flat  has  been  emptied  it  is  thoroughly  scrubbed  with  a 
50  per  cent,  solution  of  formalin  (that  is,  equal  parts  of  com- 
mercial formalin  and  water).  Enough  formalin  is  used  to  soak 
the  flat  well.  With  this  precaution,  and  if  the  oats  are  further 
made  to  grow  rapidly,  the  mould  does  not  give  any  trouble 
whatever. 

The  actual  method  of  sprouting  the  oats  is  as  follows :  Clean 
and  sound  oats  are  soaked  in  water  over  night  in  a  pail.  The 
next  morning  flats  are  filled  to  the  depth  of  about  two  inches, 
and  put  into  the  sprouting  closet.  At  the  beginning  freshly 
filled  flats  are  placed  near  the  top  of  the  closet  'so  as  to  get  the 
maximum  amount  of  heat,  and  in  that  way  get  the  sprouts 
started  at  once.  During  the  first  few  days,  until  the  sprouts 
have  become  from  a  half  to  three-quarters  of  an  inch  long,  the 
oats  are  thoroughly  stirred  and  raked  over  at  least  two  or  three 
times  during  the  day.  This  stirring  insures  an  even  distribu- 
tion of  moisture  throughout  the  mass  of  oats  in  the  flat.  After 
the  sprouts  become  sufficiently  long  so  that  the  oats  form  a 
matted  mass  it  is  not  desirable  to  stir  them,  or  to  disturb  them 
in  any  way.  Stirring  at  that  time  will  break  off  and  injure  the 
sprouts  and  the  green  portion  above  the  mass  will  not  grow  so 
well.  The  matter  of  prime  importance  in  growing  the  oats 
successfully  has  been  found  to  be  sufficient  moisture.  The 
tendency  at  first  is  to  use  too  little  moisture.  The  oats  should 
be  kept  quite  wet.  The  aim  here  is  to  keep  condensed  moisture 
standing  on  the  glass  doors  which  form  the  front  of  the  closet 
at  all  times.  In  order  to  do  this  it  is  found  necessary  to  wet 
the  oats  three  times  a  day.  This  is  done  with  an  ordinary  green- 
house sprinkling  can,  with  very  little  expenditure  of  time  or 


64  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

labor.  As  the  oats  grow  the  flats  are  moved  to  different  posi- 
tions in  the  closet.  The  taller  the  green  material  gets  the  nearer 
the  flats  are  moved  towards  the  floor,  because  the  growing  grain 
then  needs  less  heat.  This  procedure  leaves  the  desirable  places 
in  the  closet  for  the  grain  just  beginning  to  sprout  where  high 
temperature  is  needed. 

The  oats  are  fed  when  they  are  from  4  to  6  inches  in  height. 
They  are  fed  at  the  rate  of  a  piece  of  the  matted  oats  and 
attached  green  stalks  about  6  to  8  inches  square  for  each  TOO 
birds  per  day.  In  feeding,  this  6  to  8-inch  square  piece  is  broken 
into  smaller  pieces  and  scattered  over  the  pen,  so  to  ensure  that 
all  the  birds  shall  have  an  opportunity  to  get  some.  Fed  at  the 
rate  indicated,  this  material  has  never  caused  any  bowel  trouble 
among  the  birds. 

It  should  be  clearly  understood  that  the  purpose  for  which 
green  sprouted  oats  are  fed  is  their  tonic  and  stimulative  influ- 
ence on  the  digestive  organs.  They  are  not  .fed  for  the  foot! 
value  of  the  oats  themselves.  If  one  wishes  merely  to  feed 
oats  they  can  be  most  economically  fed  not  sprouted.  The  point 
of  sprouting  is  to  furnish  fresh,  succulent,  green  food  during 
the  winter  months. 

HOUSING  THE  HENS. 

When  work  in  poultry  management  was  first  undertaken  at 
the  University  of  Maine,  the  hens  were  kept  in  small  colonies  in 
accord  with  what  was  at  that  time  believed  to  be  the  best  prac- 
tice. Houses  10  feet  square  were  erected  with  the  idea  of  ac- 
commodating about  15  birds  each.  Although  the  houses  were 
well  warmed  they  were  apt  to  be  damp  and  lined  with  white 
frost  in  very  cold  weather,  when  the  windows  had  to  be  kept 
shut  to  protect  the  birds  from  cold  at  night.  Another  disad- 
vantage of  this  kind  of  house  is  its  small  size.  A  person  can 
not  care  for  hens  in  such  small  pens  without  getting  them  into 
a  condition  of  unrest  for  fear  of  being  cornered  in  such  a  small 
room.  The  question  of  extra  labor  in  caring  for  hens  in  these 
small  colonies  scattered  over  quite  a  large  area  is  an  important 
factor  in  a  commercial  plant.  When  the  Maine  Station  began 
experiments  in  1897  a  warmed  house  150  feet  long  by  16  feet 
wide  was  erected.  This  house  was  burned  the  next  spring,  but 
was  replaced  by  another  of  the  same  kind.  This  warmed 


MAINE:  AGRICULTURAL  EXPERIMENT  STATION.  65 

house,  while  constructed  after  the  most  approved  model  of  the 
time,  was  never  a  satisfactory  house  for  laying  hens.  For  some 
years  it  was  used  only  for  the  keeping  of  surplus  stock  and  for 
carrying  cockerels  over  the  winter.  Finally  it  was  abandoned 
entirely  in  favor  of  curtain-front  houses  to  be  described  be- 
low. 


THE  ROOSTING-CLOSET    HOUSE. 

Fourteen  years  ago  one  of  the  lo-foot  square  houses  described 
above  was  taken  for  a  nucleus  and  an  addition  made,  so  that  the 
reconstructed  house  was  10  feet  wide  and  25  feet  long.  The  in- 
side end  of  the  old  house  was  taken  out,  so  that  there  is  one 
room  with  a  floor  space  of  250  square  feet.  The  walls  are 
about  5  1-2  feet  high  in  the  clear  inside  of  the  building.  The 
whole  of  the  front  wall  is  not  rilled  in,  but  a  space  3  feet  wide 
and  15  feet  long  is  left  just  under  the  plate.  This  space  had  a 
frame  covered  with  white  drilling,  hinged  at  the  top  on  the 
inside,  so  that  it  could  be  let  down  and  buttoned  during  driving 
storms  and  winter  nights,  but  hung  up  out  of  the  way  at  all 
other  times.  The  cloth  of  the  outer  curtain  was  oiled  with  hot 
linseed  oil.  The  roost  platform  extended  the  whole  length  of 
the  back  of  the  room.  It  was  3  feet  4  inches  wide  and  3  feet 
above  the  floor.  The  back  wall  and  up  the  roof  for  4  feet  was 
lined  and  the  space  filled  and  packed  hard  with  fine  hay.  The 
packing  also  extended  part  way  across  the  ends  of  the  room. 

Two  roosts  were  used,  but  they  did  not  take  the  whole  length 
of  the  platform,  a  space  of  4  feet  at  one  end  being  reserved  for 
a  crate  where  broody  hens  could  be  confined  until  the  desire 
for  sitting  was  overcome.  The  space,  from  the  front  edge  of 
the  platform  up  to  the  roof  was  covered  by  frame  curtains 
of  drilling,  similar  to  the  one  on  the  front  wall,  except  that  it 
was  not  oiled.  They  were  hinged  at  the  top  edge  and  kept 
turned  out  of  the  way  during  the  daytime,  but  from  the  com- 
mencement of  cold  weather  until  spring  they  were  closed  down 
every  night  after  the  hens  went  to  roost.  The  hens  were  shut 
in  this  close  roosting  closet  and  kept  there  during  the  night,  and 
were  released  as  early  in  the  morning  as  they  could  see  to 
scratch  for  grain  which  was  sprinkled  in  the  8-inch  deep  straw 
on  the  floor. 


66  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

This  building  was  used  through  five  winters  with  50  hens  in 
it.  The  birds  laid  as  well  as  the  others  in  the  large  warmed 
house ;  their  combs  were  red  and  their  plumage  bright,  and  they 
gave  every  evidence  of  perfect  health  and  vigor.  While  they 
were  on  the  roosts  they  were  warm.  They  came  down  to  their 
breakfasts  and  spent  the  day  in  the  open  air.  Such  treatment 
gives  vigor  and  snap  to  the  human  being,  and  it  seems  to  work 
equally  well  with  the  hen. 

This  house  was  given  the  name  of  the  "pioneer"  house. 


THE  ABANDONMENT  OF   THE  ROOSTING   CLOSET. 

When  the  curtain-front  house  was  first  devised  it  was  thought 
essential  to  provide  such  a  roosting  closet  as  described  above 
to  conserve  the  body  heat  of  the  birds  during  the  cold  nights 
when  the  temperature  might  go  well  below  zero.  Experience 
has  shown,  however,  that  this  was  a  mistake.  Actual  test  shows 
that  the  roosting  closet  is  of  no  advantage,  even  in  such  a  severe 
climate  as  that  of  Orono.  On  the  contrary  the  birds  certainly 
thrive  better  without  the  roost  curtain  than  with  it.  It  has  been 
a  general  observation  among  users  of  the  curtain  front  type  of 
house  that  when  the  roost  curtains  are  used  the  birds  are  par- 
ticularly susceptible  to  colds.  It  is  not  hard  to  understand  why 
this  should  be  so.  The  air  in  a  roosting  closet  when  it  is  opened 
in  the  morning  is  plainly  bad.  The  fact  that  it  is  warm  in  no 
way  ofifsets  physiologically  the  evils  of  its  lack  of  oxygen  and 
excess  of  carbon  dioxide,  ammoniacal  vapors  and  other  exhala- 
tions from  the  bodies  of  the  birds. 

For  some  time  past  it  has  been  felt  that  the  roosting  closet 
was  at  least  unnecessary,  if  not  in  fact  a  positive  evil.  Conse- 
quently the  time  of  beginning  to  close  the  roost  curtain  in  the 
fall  has  been  each  year  longer  delayed.  Finally  in  the  fall  of 
1910  it  was  decided  not  to  use  these  curtains  at  all  during  the 
winter.  Consequently  they  were  taken  out  of  the  houses,  or 
spiked  to  the  roof  as  the  case  might  be.  The  winter  of  1910-11 
was  a  severe  one.  On  several  occasions  the  temperature 
dropped  to  30  degrees  below  zero.  Yet  during  this  winter  the 
mortality  was  exceptionally  low  and  the  egg  production  excep- 
tionally high.  The  roost  curtain  will  not  again  be  used  at  this 
Station. 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  67 

CURTAIN- FRONT    HOUSES. 

The  result  of  the  use  of  the  "pioneer"  house  indicated  that 
this  was  essentially  a  correct  system  of  treating  and  housing 
hens,  and  it  was  decided  to  build  several  houses  on  the  same 
plan  and  join  them  together  under  one  roof  as  one  house. 

A  curtain-front  house  12  feet  wide  by  150  feet  long,  known  as 
house  No.  2,  was  erected  in  1903.  The  back  wall  is  5  feet  6 
inches  high  from  floor  to  top  of  plate  inside,  and  the  front  wall 
is  6  feet  8  inches  high.  The  roof  is  of  unequal  span,  the  ridge 
being  4  feet  in  from  the  front  wall ;  and  the  height  of  the  ridge 
above  tht  floor  is  9  feet.  The  sills  are  4  by  6  inches  in  size  and 
rest  on  a  rough  stone  wall  laid  on  the  surface  of  the  ground.  A 
central  sill  gives  support  to  the  floor.  The  floor  timbers  are  2  by  8 
inches  in  size  and  are  placed  2  feet  apart;  the  floor  is  of  two 
thicknesses  of  hemlock  boards. '  All  the  rest  of  the  frame  is  of  2 
by  4  inch  stuff.  The  building  is  boarded,  papered,  and  shingled 
on  roof  and  walls.  The  rear  wall  and  4  feet  of  the  lower  part 
of  the  rear  roof  are  ceiled  on  the  inside  of  the  studding  and 
plates,  and  the  space  between  inner  and  outer  walls  is  packed 
very  hard  with  dry  sawdust.  In  order  to  make  the  sawdust 
packing  continuous  between  the  wall  and  roof,  the  wall  ceiling 
is  carried  up  to  within  6  inches  of  the  plate;  then  follows  up 
inclining  pieces  of  studding  to  the  rafters,  the  short  pieces  of 
studding  being  nailed  to  the  studs  and  rafters.  By  this  arrange- 
ment there  are  no  slack  places  around  the  plate  to  admit  cold 
air.  The  end  walls  are  packed  in  the  same  way.  The  house 
is  divided  by  close-board  partitions  into  seven  2O-foot  sec- 
tions;* one  lo-foot  section  is  reserved  at  the  lower  end  for  a 
feed-storage  room. 

Each  of  the  20- foot  sections  has  two  12-light  outside  windows 
screwed  to  the  front,  and  the  space  between  the  windows 
(which  is  8  feet  long)  for  a  distance  of  3  feet  down  from  the 
plate  is  covered  during  rough  winter  storms  and  cold  nights 
by  a  light  frame  covered  with  lo-ounce  duck,  oiled  and  closely 
tacked  on.  This  door,  or  curtain,  is  hinged  at  the  top  and 
swings  in  and  up  to  the  roof  when  open. 

*The  house  is  now  used  as  a  breeding  house,  and  temporary  partitions 
divide  each  of  the  2O-foot  pens  into  two  lO-foot  pens. 


68  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

In  the  front  of  each  section  is  a  door  2  feet  6  inches  wide. 
The  roost  platform  is  at  the  back  of  each  room  and  extends  the 
whole  20  feet.  The  platform  is  3  feet  6  inches  wide  and  3  feet 
above  the  floor.  The  roosts  are  of  2  by  3  inch  stuff  placed  on 
edge  and  are  10  inches  above  the  platform.  The  back  one  is  n 
inches  out  from  the  wall,  and  the  space  between  the  two  roosts 
is  1 6  inches,  leaving  15  inches  between  the  front  roost  and  the 
front  of  the  platform. 

Six  trap  nests  are  placed  at  each  end  of  each  room.  They 
are  put  near  the  front  so  that  the  light  may  be  good  for  reading 
and  recording  the  numbers  on  the  leg  bands  of  the  birds. 
Several  shelves  are  put  on  the  walls  18  inches  above  the  floor 
for  shell,  grit,  bone,  etc.  The  doors  which  open  from  one  room 
to  another  throughout  the  building  are  frames  covered  with  10- 
ounce  duck,  so  as  to  make  them  light,  and  are  hung  with  double- 
action  spring  hinges.  The  advantages  of  having  all  doors  push 
from  the  person  passing  through  are  very  great;  otherwise 
they  would  hinder  the  passage  of  the  attendant  with  his  baskets 
and  pails.  Strips  of  old  rubber  belting  are  nailed  around  the 
studs  which  the  doors  rub  against  as  they  swing  to,  so  as  just 
to  catch  and  hold  them  from  being  opened  by  the  wind.  Tight 
board  partitions  are  used  between  the  pens  instead  of  wire,  so 
as  to  prevent  drafts.  An  outside  platform  4  feet  wide  extends 
along  the  entire  front  of  the  building. 

This  house  accommodates  350  hens — 50  in  each  2o-foot  sec- 
tion— is  well  made  of  good  material,  and  should  prove  to  be 
durable.  A  rougher  building,  with  plain  instead  of  trap  nests, 
and  with  the  roof  and  walls  covered  with  some  of  the  prepared 
materials  instead  of  shingles,  could  be  built  for  less  money,  and 
would  probably  furnish  as  comfortable  quarters  for  the  birds. 

Curtain  front  house  No.  3  was  constructed  in  1904.  It  is  16 
ft.  wide  by  120  ft.  long  and  is  of  the  same  style  as  No.  2  except 
that  it  is  wider.  There  are  four  pens  in  the  building,  each  16 
ft.  wide  by  30  ft.  long.  The  pens  are  arranged  to  hold  from  125 
to  150  hens  each,  depending  on  the  exigences  of  the  experi- 
mental work.  One  hundred  and  fifty  birds  per  pen  do  very 
well  in  these  pens.  Unless  there  is  special  reason  for  it,  it  is 
usually  preferred  to  put  but  125  birds  in  each  pen.  The  inter- 
rior  of  one  pen  in  this  house  is  shown  in  Fig.  16. 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


70  METHODS    OF    POUI/TRY    MANAGEMENT. 

The  economy  in  cost  of  the  wider  house  over  the  narrower 
one  like  No.  2  described  above,  when  space  is  considered,  is 
evident.  The  front  and  back  walls  in  the  narrower  house  cost 
about  as  much  per  linear  foot  as  those  in  the  wide  house  and 
the  greatly  increased  floor  space  is  increased  by  building  in  a 
strip  of  floor  and  roof  running  lengthwise  of  the  building.  The 
walls,  doors,  and  windows  remain  the  same  as  in  the  narrow 
house,  except  that  the  front  wall  is  made  a  little  higher.  Three 
six  inch  square  sills  run  lengthwise  of  the  house.  The  outer 
ones  rest  on  rough  stone  walls  high  enough  from  the  ground  for 
dogs  to  go  under  the  building  to  look  after  rats  and  skunks 
that  may  be  inclined  to  make  their  homes  there.  The  stone 
walls  rest  on  the  surface  of  the  ground.  The  middle  longitudi- 
nal 5  in.  x  6  in.  timber  rests  on  cedar  posts.  The  floor  timbers 
are  2  by  6  inch  in  size  and  rest  wholly  on  the  top  of  the  sills. 
All  wall  studs  rest  on  the  sills.  The  front  ones  are  8  ft.  long 
and  the  back  ones  7  ft.  3  in.  long.  The  two  sides  of  the  roof 
are  unequal  in  width,  the  ridge  being  5  ft.  and  4  in.  from  the 
front  wall.  The  height  of  the  ridge  from  the  sill  to  the  extreme 
top  is  ii  ft.  and  2  in.  All  studding  is  2  by  4  in.  in  size  and 
the  rafters  are  2  by  5  in.  The  building  is  boarded  by  I  in. 
boards  and  is  papered  and  shingled  with  good  cedar  shingles  on 
walls  and  roof.  The  floor  is  two  thicknesses  of  hemlock  boards 
which  break  joints  in  the  laying  and  have  building  paper  be- 
tween. 

The  building  is  divided  by  tight  board  partitions  into  four 
sections,  each  being  30  ft.  long.  All  of  the  sections  are  alike 
in  construction  and  arrangement.  The  front  side  of  each  sec- 
tion has  two  storm  windows  of  12  lights  of  10  by  12  in.  glass. 
These  windows  are  screwed  on  upright  and  as  high  up  as  possi- 
ble on  the  front,  so  that  the  top  of  the  window  just  clears  the 
eaves.  The  opening  in  the  front  which  is  closed  by  a  cloth 
curtain  is  14  ft.  and  6  in.  long  and  3  ft.  high.  Between 
one  end  of  this  curtain  opening  and  the  window  is 
placed  a  door  for  the  attendants  to  pass  through  into  the  pen. 
A  small  door  is  placed  under  each  of  the  windows  on  the 
front  side  of  the  house  with  a  runway  through  which  the  birds 
may  pass  under  the  front  walk  into  the  yard.  A  single  door  in 
the  center  of  the  back  wall  under  the  droppings  board  allows  the 
birds  to  pass  out  into  the  back  yard  when  necessary.  A  light 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


a 


72  METHODS  OF  POULTRY  MANAGEMENT. 

frame  covered  with  10  ounce  white  duck  is  hinged  to  the  top  of 
the  front  opening  and  covers  it  when  closed  down.  This  cur- 
tain is  easily  turned  up  into  the  room,  where  it  is  caught  and 
held  by  swinging  hooks  until  released. 

The  roost,  platform  is  made  tight  and  extends  along  the 
whole  length  of  the  room  against  the  back  wall.  It  is  4  ft.  6  in. 
wide  and  3  ft.  above  the  floor,  being  high  enough  for  a  person 
to  get  under  comfortably  when  necessary  to  handle  or  catch  the 
birds.  There  are  3  roosts  framed  together  in  two  15  ft.  sec- 
tions. The  tops  of  the  roosts  are  81-2  in.  above  the  platform 
and  hinged  to  the  back  wall  so  that  they  may  be  turned  up  out 
of  the  way  when  the  platform  is  being  cleaned.  The  back 
roost  is  7  in.  from  the  wall  and  the  spaces  between  the  next 
two  are  16  in.  They  are  made  of  2  by  3  in.  spruce  lumber  on 
edge  with  the  upper  corner  rounded  off. 

In  every  pen  there  is  a  door  placed  5  in.  out  from  edge  of 
the  roost  platform.  Fifteen  trapnests  are  placed  in  three  tiers 
against  the  partition  in  each  end  of  the  room.  The  trapnests 
are  described  in  a  subsequent  section  of  this  bulletin. 

Troughs  similar  to  those  described  on  page  40  are  used  for 
feeding  mash,  shell,  bone,  grit,  and  charcoal. 

There  is  a  walk  outside  of  the  building  which  extends  along 
its  entire  front.  It  is  4  ft.  and  8  in.  wide  and  made  of  2  in. 
planks  and  is  on  the  level  of  the  floor  of  the  building. 

Detailed  working  drawings  and  specifications  for  one  section 
or  unit  of  this  curtain  front  house  follow.  From  these  data 
anyone  can  figure  what  the  cost  of  building  one  of  these  houses 
of  any  desired  length  at  the  prices  of  building  material  in  his 
locality. 

Material  needed  for  one  unit  of  curtain  front  house : 


LUMBER. 

(Spruce  is  specified  simply  because  that  is  the  material  actually  used 
in  the  building  described.    Any  other  equally  strong  lumber  may  be  used. 
Amounts  are  given  in  board  feet  unless  otherwise  specified.) 
The  following  estimates  do  not  allow  for  waste  in  cutting: 
9  cedar  posts,  6  feet  long,  6-inch  butts. 

270  feet  2  by  4  inch  spruce  for  studs,  door,  window,  and  coop  frames. 
550  feet  2  by  6  inch  plank  for  floor  joists,  outside  walk,  etc. 
370  feet  6  by  6  inch  spruce  for  sills. 
40  feet  4  by  4  inch  spruce  for  corner  studs  and  wall  stringers. 


MAINE)    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  73 

70  feet  2  by  3  inch  spruce  for  roosts,  etc. 
235  feet  2  by  5  inch  spruce  for  rafters. 
115  feet  i  by  7  inch  spruce  for  rafter  braces. 

33  feet  i  by  9  inch  spruce  for  doors, 
loi  feet  i  by  6  inch  spruce  for  door  braces. 
3200  feet  boards  for  outside,  floor,  nests,  etc. 

20  linear  feet  2  in.  x  2  in.  planed  to  I  3-4  in.  x  i  3-4  in. 

12  linear  feet  2  in.  by  3-4  in.  spruce. 

66  board  feet  i  in.  spruce  for  feed  and  grit  trough. 

35  linear  feet  spruce  for  curtain  frames. 

20  laths. 

12,000  shingles. 

ii  feet  boards,  spruce,  for  roost  frames. 

HARDWARE. 

4  pr.  heavy  6  inch  T  hinges  with  screws. 

4  pr.  light  3  inch  T  hinges  with  screws. 

2  pr.  3  by  3  inch  butts  with  screws. 
60  pr.  2  by  2  inch  butts  with  screws. 
40  Ibs.  3  penny  shingle  nails. 
100  Ibs.  8  penny  common  nails. 
35  Ibs.  10  penny  common  nails. 
15  Ibs.  20  penny  common  nails. 

2  Ibs.  3  penny  common  nails. 

1  Ib.  3  inch  staples. 

2  thumb  latches  complete  with  screws. 

MISCELLANEOUS. 

2  storm  windows,  12  lights  10  by  12  inch. 

6  squares  building  paper. 

10  feet  42  inch  poultry  netting. 

14^  feet  42  inch  lo-ounce  duck. 

ADVANTAGES  OF   CURTAIN   FRONT   HOUSES. 

The  "Pioneer  House"  was  in  use  for  5  years  with  60  pullets 
in  it  each  year.  No.  2  house  has  been  in  use  9  years  and  the 
No.  3  house  8  years.  No.  2  and  No.  3  houses  have  proven  en- 
tirely satisfactory,  especially  No.  3.  This  is  the  type  of  house 
described  in  the  present  bulletin  which  the  Station  after  8  years 
experience  feels  warranted  in  recommending.  Some  years  ago 
the  experiment  was  tried  of  building  a  house  on  the  same  gen- 
eral plan  as  that  of  No.  3  but  making  it  20  ft.  wide  instead  of 
1 6  ft.  wide  with  the  pens  20  ft.  long.  This  house  was  given  a 
trial  for  a  number  of  years  on  a  private  plant  in  Orono,  but 


74 


METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  75 

from  all  that  can  be  learned  the  house  was  never  so  satisfactory 
as  the  1 6  ft.  house  at  the  Station,  and  has  finally  been  aban- 
doned. 

Maine  is  subject  to  long  spells  of  severe  cold  weather,  with 
the  temperature  considerably  below  zero  at  night,  and  about 
zero  during  the  day,  and  with  a  good  deal  of  high  wind.  Dur- 
ing such  rough  weather  the  bedding  on  the  floor  has  kept  com- 
paratively dry.  The  yields  of  eggs  during  severe  weather  and 
immediately  following  it  are  rarely  below  those  immediately 
preceding  it.  It  should  be  borne  in  mind  that  had  the  weather 
been  mild  all  that  time  the  hens  probably  would  have  in- 
creased in  production  rather  than  remained  stationary.  They 
are  doubtless  affected  by  the  severe  weather,  but  not  seriously, 
as  they  uniformily  begin  to  increase  in  production  very  soon 
after  the  weather  becomes  normal  for  midwinter. 

These  curtain  front  houses  have  all  proved  eminently  satisfac- 
tory. The  egg  yields  per  bird  have  been  better  in  these  houses 
than  in  warmed  ones.  The  purpose  of  having  rooms  and  flocks 
of  different  sizes  was  to  compare  the  welfare  and  egg  yields  of 
the  birds  under  the  different  conditions. 


THE  YARDS. 

The  yards  to  most  poultry  houses  are  at  the  south,  or  on  the 
sheltered  sides  of  the  buildings,  to  afford  protection  during  the 
late  fall  and  early  spring,  when  cold  winds  are  common.  The 
warmed  house  had  yards  on  both  north  and  south  sides,  with 
convenient  gates.  This  is  a  highly  desirable  arrangement  since 
it  permits  the  alternate  use  of  the  two  sets  of  runs.  In  this 
way  trouble  from  soil  contamination  may  be  avoided.  The 
south  yards  were  used  until  the  cold  winds  were  over  in  spring, 
when  the  hens  were  allowed  to  go  to  the  north  yards,  which 
were  well  set  in  grass  sod.  The  birds  are  kept  shut  in  the 
curtain  front  house  until  the  weather  is  suitable  and  the  ground 
dried  out  in  the  spring.  The  necessity  for  getting  them  out  of 
the  open-front  house,  where  they  are  really  subject  to  most  of 
the  out-of-door  conditions  during  the  daytime,  is  not  so  great  as 
when  they  are  confined  in  closed  houses  with  walls  and  glass 
windows.  The  clear,  open  fronts  of  the  curtain-front  houses 


76 


METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  77 

allow  teams  to  pass  close  to  the  open  doors  of  the  pens  for 
cleaning  out  worn  material  and  delivering  new  bedding,  and 
also  allow  attendants  to  enter  and  leave  all  pens  from  the  out- 
side walk  and  reach  the  feed  room  without  passing  through 
intervening  pens. 


LICE. 

One  of  the  most  difficult  and  trying  problems  which  the  poul- 
try keeper  has  to  meet  is  that  of  keeping  his  poultry  houses  and 
stock  reasonably  free  from  lice,  mites  and  other  external  para- 
sites. There  are  many  proprietary  preparations  on  the 'market 
designed  to  accomplish  this  end  in  one  way  or  another.  Most 
of  these  preparations  are,  in  proportion  to  their  efficiency,  very 
expensive.  Many  of  them  have  been  tried  at  the  Maine  Experi- 
ment Station.  The  Station  has  finally,  however,  come  to  follow 
the  procedure  outlined  in  this  circular  to  the  exclusion  of  all 
others,  and  with  results  which  are  extremely  satisfactory.  In- 
deed, it  may  be  said  that  vermin  on  the  poultry  or  in  the  houses 
no  longer  cause  any  appreciable  annoyance  in  the  work  of  the 
Station  plant. 

The  routine  method  which  the  Station  uses  in  handling  its 
stock  with  reference  to  the  lice  problem  is  as  follows : — 

All  hatching  and  rearing  of  chickens  is  done  in  incubators  and 
brooders.  The  growing  chickens  are  never  allowed  to  come  into 
any  contact  whatever  with  old  hens.  Therefore,  when  the 
pullets  are  ready  to  go  into  the  laying  houses  in  the  fall  they  are 
free  from  lice.  Sometime  in  the  late  summer,  usually  in  Au- 
gust or  early  in  September,  the  laying  houses  are  given  a  thor- 
ough cleaning.  They  are  first  scraped,  scoured  and  washed 
out  with  water  thrown  on  the  walls  and  floor  with  as  much  pres- 
sure as  possible  from  a  hose.  They  are  then  given  two  thorough 
sprayings,  with  an  interval  of  several  days  intervening,  with  a 
solution  of  cresol  such  as  is  described  on  page  7.  Then  the 
roosting  boards,  nests,  floors  and  walls  to  a  height  of  about  5 
feet  are  thoroughly  sprayed  with  the  lice  paint  (kerosene  oil 
and  crude  carbolic  acid).  Finally,  any  yearling,  or  older  birds, 
whether  male  or  female,  which  are  to  be  kept  over  for  next 
year's  work  are  given  two  or  three  successive  dustings,  at  in- 


METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 


\ 


o 

•5 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  79 

tervals  of  several  days  to  a  week  between  each  application,  with 
the  lice  powder  described  below,  before  they  are  put  into  the 
cleaned  houses. 

As  a  result  of  these  methods  the  Station's  poultry  plant  is 
at  all  times  of  the  year  practically  free  from  lice. 

In  keeping  a  poultry  plant  reasonably  free  from  lice  there 
are  two  points  of  attack :  One,  the  birds  themselves ;  the  other, 
the  houses,  nest  boxes,  roosting  boards,  etc.  For  the  birds 
themselves  experience  has  shown  that  the  best  way  to  get  rid  of 
the  lice  is  by  the  use  of  a  dusting  powder  to  be  worked  into 
the  feathers.  In  using  any  kind  of  lice  powder  on  poultry  it 
should  always  be  remembered  that  a  single  application  of  pow- 
der is  not  sufficient.  When  there  are  lice  present  on  a  bird 
there  are  always  unhatched  eggs  of  lice  ("nits")  present  too. 
The  proper  procedure  is  to  follow  up  a  first  application  of  pow- 
der with  a  second  at  an  interval  of  4  days  to  a  week.  If  the 
birds  are  badly  infested  at  the  beginning  it  may  be  necessary  to 
make  still  a  third  application.  To  clean  the  cracks  and  crevices 
of  the  woodwork  of  houses  and  nests  of  lice  and  vermin  a 
liquid  spray  or  paint  is  probably  the  most  desirable  form  of  ap- 
plication. 

The  most  efficient  lice  powder  known  to  the  writer  is  that 
invented  by  Mr.  R.  C.  Lawry,  formerly  of  the  Poultry  Depart- 
ment of  Cornell  University.  This  powder  is  made  by  incorpo- 
rating the  liquid  mixture  of 

3  parts  of  gasoline 

i  part  of  crude  carbolic  acid 

in  sufficient  plaster  of  paris  to  take  up  all  the  moisture. 

Twe  difficulties  have  arisen  regarding  the  practical  utility  of 
the  powder  as  above  described.  In  the  first  place  a  great  many 
druggists  appear  to  have  a  deep-seated  and  ineradicable  preju- 
dice against  furnishing  their  customers  crude  carbolic  acid  at 
any  price.  Reports  have  reached  the  Station  of  druggists  mak- 
ing such  utterly  preposterous  and  absurd  claims  as  that  carbolic 
acid  is  a  highly  explosive  substance,  which  they  do  not  dare  to 
handle!  In  the  second  place  difficulty  has  arisen  over  the  fact 
that  there  are  in  the  drug  trade  three  grades  of  crude  carbolic 
acid.  Two  of  these  are  very  much  weaker  than  the  other  and 
are  quite  useless  for  making  the  lice  powder.  The  three  grades 


8o 


METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 


•ft 

j 


MAINE   AGRICUI/TURAI,    EXPERIMENT   STATION.  8l 

are  listed  as  follows  by  a  reputable  chemical  house.  These  are 
retail  prices. 

Acid  Carbolic,  Crude,  per  gallon  25c. 

Acid  Carbolic,  Crude  50-60  per  cent.,  per  gallon  ^oc. 
Acid  Carbolic,  Crude  90-95  per  cent.,  per  gallon  5oc. 

To  get  the  proper  results  only  the  90-05  per  cent,  should  be 
used  for  making  lice  powder.  The  weaker  acids  are  ineffective. 

Owing  to  the  difficulty  in  getting  the  strong  crude  carbolic 
acid  locally  in  this  State  at  reasonable  prices,  the  Station  has 
experimented  to  see  whether  some  other  more  readily  obtainable 
substance  could  not  be  substituted  for  it.  It  has  been  found  that 
cresol  gives  as  good  results  as  the  highest  grade  crude  carbolic. 

The  directions  for  making  the  powder  are,  therefore,  modified 
as  follows: 

Take  j  parts  of  gasoline,  and 

i  part  of  crude  carbolic  acid,  00-05  Per  cent,  strength, 
or,  if  the  00-05  per  cent,  strength  crude  carbolic  acid  cannot  be 
obtained  take 

3  parts  of  gasoline  and 
I  part  of  cresol. 

Mix  these  together  and  add  gradually  with  thorough  stirring, 
enough  plaster  of  paris  to  take  up  all  the  moisture.  As  a  gen- 
eral rule  it  will  take  about  4  quarts  of  plaster  of  paris  to  I  quart 
of  the  liquid.  The  exact  amount,  however,  must  be  determined 
by  the  condition  of  the  powder  in  each  case.  The  liquid  and 
dry  plaster  should  be  thoroughly  mixed  and  stirred  so  that  the 
liquid  will  be  uniformly  distributed  through  the  mass  of  plaster. 
When  enough  plaster  has  been  added  the  resulting  mixture 
should  be  a  dry,  pinkish  brown  powder  having  a  fairly  strong 
carbolic  odor  and  a  rather  less  pronounced  gasoline  odor.  The 
powder  may  be  passed  repeatedly  through  a  sieve  to  aid  in  the 
mixing. 

Do  not  use  more  plaster  in  mixing  than  is  necessary  to  blot 
up  the  liquid.  This  powder  is  to  be  worked  into  the  feathers 
of  the  birds  affected  with  vermin.  The  bulk  of  the  application 
should  be  in  the  fluff  around  the  vent  and  on  the  ventral  side 
of  the  body  and  in  the  fluff  under  the  wings.  Its  efficiency, 
which  is  greater  than  that  of  any  other  lice  powder  known  to 


82 


METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 


MAINE   AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  83 

the  writer,  can  be  very  easily  demonstrated  by  anyone  to  his 
own  satisfaction.  Take  a  bird  that  is  covered  with  lice  and  ap- 
ply the  powder  in  the  manner  just  described.  After  a  lapse 
of  about  a  minute,  shake  the  bird,  loosening  its  feathers  with 
the  fingers  at  the  same  time,  over  a  clean  piece  of  paper.  Dead 
and  dying  lice  will  drop  on  the  paper  in  great  numbers.  Any- 
one who  will  try  this  experiment  will  have  no  further  doubt  of 
the  wonderful  efficiency  and  value  of  this  powder. 

For  a  spray  or  paint  to  be  applied  to  roosting  boards,  nest 
boxes  or  walls  and  floor  of  the  hen  houses  the  following  prepa- 
ration is  used : — j  parts  of  kerosene  and  I  part  crude  carbolic 
acid,  90-95  per  cent,  strength.  This  is  stirred  up  when  used 
and  may  be  applied  with  any  of  the  hand  spray  pumps  or  with 
a  brush. 

//  90-95  per  cent,  crude  carbolic  acid  cannot  be  obtained 
cresol  may  be  substituted  for  it  in  this  paint. 

At  the  present  time  very  little  use  of  lice  powder  of  any 
sort  is  made  at  the  Station.  Instead  a  mercurial  ointment  is 
employed  when  a  bird  needs  individual  treatment.  After  sev- 
eral years  experience  we  find  the  ointment  to  be  more  satisfac- 
tory than  any  powder.  The  ointment  used  for  this  purpose  is 
Ammonia-ted  Mercurial  Ointment.  This  is  a  standard  U.  S.  P. 
preparation,  but  as  the  Pharmacopoeia  calls  for  it  to  be  made 
with  wool- fat  or  lanolin  as  a  base,  and  as  this  is  more  expensive 
than  other  forms  of  fat  equally  good  for  the  present  purpose  we 
have  the  druggist  make  up  the  ointment  exactly  as  called  for 
by  the  U.  S.  P.  except  that  lard  is  substituted  for  lanolin. 

In  using  this  ointment  a  piece  about  as  big  as  a  pea  should  be 
well  rubbed  into  the  skin  under  the  vent,  and  a  piece  of  similar 
size  well  rubbed  in  under  each  wing.  In  using  a  mercurial  oint- 
ment always  spread  it  around  well,  so  that  the  bird  cannot  eat  it. 

NATURAL  ENEMIES  OF  POULTRY. 

One  of  the  chief  difficulties  that  the  poultryman  has  to  con- 
tend with  is  the  continued  loss  of  chicks,  and  sometimes  even  of 
nearly  full  grown  birds,  as  consequence  of  the  depredations 
of  natural  enemies.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  the  magnitude  of  the 
loss  from  this  source  is  not  anything  like  fully  realized  by  any 
one  who  has  not  kept  an  accurate  account  of  all  his  birds.  In 


84  METHODS    OF    POUI/TRY    MANAGEMENT. 

the  experimental  breeding  work  with  poultry  at  the  Maine  Sta- 
tion it  is  necessary  to  keep  account  of  every  bird  on  the  plant. 
It  has,  therefore,  on  this  account  been  possible  to  check  up  and 
form  an  adequate  estimate  of  the  losses  due  to  the  creatures 
that  prey  upon  poultry.  A  good  deal  of  attention  has  been 
devoted  to  the  problem  of  how  these  losses  may  be  cut  down 
and  the  results  of  this  experience  may  be  of  benefit  to  other 
poultry  keepers. 

In  the  experience  of  this  Station  the  most  destructive  natural 
enemy  of  poultry  in  the  long  run  has  been  found  to  be  the 
crow.  The  depredations  of  the  hawks  are  more  spectacular 
perhaps,  but  in  the  Jong  run  far  less  destructive.  A  hawk  will 
only  visit  a  poultry  yard  occasionally,  and  especially  if  he  is  shot 
at  once  or  twice  will  be  very  wary  about  approaching  it  again. 
On  the  contrary  the  crow  is  a  steady  and  persistent  robber.  He 
will  continue  his  depredations  just  as  long  as  it  is  physically 
possible  for  him  to  do  so.  While  there  may  be  some  doubt  as  to 
whether  crows  are  beneficial  or  harmful  as  regards  other  phases 
of  agriculture,  there  can  be  no  question  that,  so  far  as  the 
poultry  man  is  concerned,  the  only  good  crow  is  a  dead  one.  For 
a  number  of  years  the  crows  killed  and  either  carried  away,  or 
left  behind  partly  eaten,  a  large  number  of  chicks  on  the  Station 
poultry  plant.  The  losses  were  not  by  any  means  confined  to 
the  small  chicks,  but  half  grown  birds,  each  nearly  equal  in 
weight  to  the  crow  itself,  were  killed,  partly  eaten,  and  left 
behind  on  the  range. 

One  after  another  all  the  devices  which  had  been  suggested 
by  others,  or  could  be  thought  of  by  those  in  charge  of  the 
poultry  work,  were  tried  in  order  to  stop  these  ravages.  In  a 
single  year  the  crows  destroyed  something  over  500  chicks. 
One  important  reason  for  these  heavy  losses  is  the  location  of 
our  poultry  range.  It  borders  upon  a  pine  forest  in  which  the 
crows  congregate  in  great  numbers.  In  the  case  of  a  range 
farther  from  the  woods  the  losses,  without  protection,  would 
not  be  nearly  so  heavy.  Various  sorts  of  "scare-crows"  were 
tried  but  with  no  effect  whatever.  Dead  crows  were  hung  up 
on  stakes  about  the  yards  as  solemn  warnings  to  their  fellows, 
but  instead  of  operating  as  warnings  they  appeared  rather  to 
serve  as  "invitations  to  the  dance."  Decoying  the  birds  in 
various  ways  so  that  they  might  be  shot  was  tried,  but  with  very 


MAINE   AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  85 

slight  individual  success  and  no  substantial  effect  on  the  steady 
losses.  Poisoning  is  reported  to  have  been  used  with  success 
in  other  places,  but  has  never  been  tried  on  the  Station  plant. 
It  is  doubtful  whether  it  is  justifiable,  save  under  very  excep- 
tional circumstances.  The  point  is  that  it  is  difficult  to  manage 
affairs  in  such  way  as  to  insure  that  only  the  crows  will  get 
the  poison.  There  are  so  many  useful  and  valuable  animals 
about  the  farm  that  easily  might  get  the  poison  before  the  crow 
did,  with  a  resulting  loss  greater  than  that  caused  by  the  crow, 
that  it  would  seem  wise  to  resort  to  poisoning  only  when  it  can 
be  done  under  well  controlled  conditions. 

The  plan  which  has  finally  been  adopted  at  the  Station  poul- 
try plant  for  dealing  with  crows  is  one  which  is  perfectly  safe 
and  sure  in  its  operation.  It  consists  simply  in  running  strands 
of  binder  twine  about  two  feet  apart  over  the  whole  of  the 
poultry  range  occupied  by  the  young  birds,  until  they  reach  such 
size  that  they  are  able  to  take  care  of  themselves.  These  strings 
are  run  over  the  tops  of  the  brooder  houses,  and  on  supports 
made  by  cross  strands  of  either  wire  or  two  or  three  strings 
of  binder  twine  twisted  together.  These  cross  strands  are  held 
up  where  necessary  by  posts.  The  whole  network  of  strings 
thus  formed  is  put  at  such  height  that  the  attendants  in  working 
about  the  yard,  will  not  hit  the  string  when  standing  upright. 
The  area  covered  in  with  strings  in  this  way  on  the  Station 
poultry  plant  is  usually  about  3  acres  per  year.  The  expense 
of  covering  this  area  is  from  $15  to  $20  for  twine.  The  labor 
of  putting  it  up  is  comparatively  small.  It  forms  a  perfect  and 
complete  protection  against  both  crows  and  hawks. 

The  appearance  of  the  range  when  covered  with  strings  is 
shown  in  figure  22. 

Next  in  importance  to  the  predaceous  birds,  as  poultry  ene- 
mies, stand  the  rats  and  the  foxes.  In  times  past  foxes  have 
destroyed  many  chickens  from  the  Station's  poultry  plant.  Of 
late  years,  however,  none  has  been  lost.  The  protection  is 
afforded  by  a  fox  proof  fence  surrounding  the  whole  plant. 
Rats  may  become  a  very  serious  pest.  They  live  under  the 
brooder  houses  and  take  the  young  chicks.  Various  methods 
have  been  tried  at  the  Station,  but  no  wholly  satisfactory  way 
of  dealing  with  rats  has  yet  been  found.  Trial  was  made  some 
years  ago  of  one  of  the  most  widely  advertised  of  the  bacterial 


86 


METHODS    OF    POUT/TRY    MANAGEMENT. 


bo 

o 

X 

in 


MAINE   AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT   STATION.  87 

rat  destroyers,  which  when  fed  to  rats  is  supposed  to  induce  a 
disease  which  kills  them  all.  No  effect  whatever  was  observed 
to  follow  the  use  of  this  preparation.  The  rats  ate  freely  of 
grain  which  had  been  moistened  with  it  and  if  any  disease 
developed  as  a  consequence  it  has  not  yet  benefited  us,  or  per- 
ceptibly inconvenienced  the  rats.  Digging  the  rats  out  of  their 
holes  and  shooting  them  is  one  effectual  method  of  dealing 
with  them.  Several  good  cats  on  the  place  also  aid  materially  in 
fighting  this  pest.  A  systematic  trapping  campaign  is  productive 
of  good  results.  It  must  however,  be  continued  without  inter- 
ruption over  a  considerable  period  of  time.  Desultory  trapping 
produces  little  effect  on  the  rat  population.  A  thorough-going 
campaign,  however,  tends  to  drive  the  uncaught  rats  away  from 
the  premises. 

TRAP  NESTS. 

In  all  the  experimental  work  with  laying  hens  at  the  Maine 
Agricultural  Experiment  Station  use  is  made  of  trap  nests.  In 
1908  a  new  type  of  trap  nest  was  devised  which  has  proved 
extremely  satisfactory.  The  features  in  which  this  nest  is 
superior  to  the  type  formerly  used  at  the  Station  are  (i)  cer- 
tainty and  precision  of  operation;  (2)  greater  simplicity  of  con- 
struction, with  less  tendency  to  get  out  of  order  and  work 
badly;  (3)  saving  of  labor  in  resetting  the  nest  after  use. 

The  nest  is  a  box-like  structure,  without  front,  end,  or  cover, 
28  inches  long,  13  inches  wide,  and  16  inches  deep,  inside  meas- 
ure. A  division  board  with  a  circular  opening  71-2  inches  in 
diameter  is  placed  across  the  box  12  inches  from  the  rear  end 
and  15  inches  from  the  front  end.  Instead  of  having  the  par- 
tition between  the  two  parts  of  the  nest  made  with  a  circular 
hole,  it  is  possible  to  have  simply  a  straight  board  partition 
extending  up  6  inches  from  the  bottom,  as  shown  in  figure  23. 
The  rear  section  is  the  nest  proper. 

The  front  portion  of  the  nest  has  no  fixed  tottom.  Instead 
there  is  a  movable  bottom  or  treadle  which  is  hinged  at  the  back 
end  (fig.  23).  To  this  treadle  is  hinged  the  door  of  the  nest. 
The  treadle  is  made  of  i-2-inch  pine  stuff,  with  I  T-2-inc)i  hard- 
wood cleats  at  each  end  (figs.  24  and  25)  to  hold  the  screws 
which  fasten  the  hinges.  It  is  12  inches  wide  and  12  1-4  inches 


88  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

long.  Across  its  upper  face  just  behind  the  hinges  holding  the 
door  is  nailed  a  pine  strip  4  inches  wide,  beveled  on  both  sides, 
as  shown  in  figures  24  and  25.  The  door  of  the  nest  is  not  made 
solid,  but  is  an  open  frame  (figs.  18  and  20),  to  the  inner  side 
of  which  is  fastened  (with  staples)  a  rectangular  piece  of  1-8- 
inch  mesh  galvanized  screening  (dimensions  8  by  9  inches). 
The  sides  of  the  door  are  strips  of  3-4-inch  beech  stuff  12 
inches  long  and  I  1-2  inches  wide,  halved  at  the  ends  to  join  to 
the  top  and  bottom  of  the  door.  The  top  of  the  door  is  a  strip 
of  hard  wood  13  inches  long  and  11-2  inches  wide,  halved  in 
2  3-4  inches  from  each  end.  The  projecting  ends  of  this  top 
strip  serve  as  stops  for  the  door  when  it  closes  (fig.  23).  The 
bottom  of  the  door  is  a  hard-wood  strip  10  1-4  inches  by  4 
inches.  The  side  strips  are  fitted  into  the  ends  of  this  bottom 
strip  in  such  way  as  to  project  slightly  (about  1-32  inch)  above 
the  front  surface  of  that  strip,  for  a  reason  which  will  be  ap- 
parent. 

When  the  nest  is  open  the  door  extends  horizontally  in  front, 
as  shown  in  figure  24.  In  this  position  the  side  strips  of  the 
door  rest  on  a  strip  of  beech  11-2  inches  wide,  beveled  on  the 
inner  corner,  which  extends  across  the  front  of  the  nest.  This 
beech  strip  is  nailed  to  the  top  of  a  board  4  inches  wide,  which 
forms  the  front  of  the  nest  box  proper.  To  the  bottom  of  this 
is  nailed  a  strip  2  inches  wide,  into  which  are  set  two  4-inch 
spikes  from  which  the  heads  have  been  cut  (compare  fig.  24). 
The  treadle  rests  on  these  spikes  when  the  nest  is  closed.  The 
hinges  used  in  fastening  the  treadle  and  door  are  narrow  3-inch 
galvanized  butts  with  brass  pins,  made  to  work  very  easily.  It 
is  necessary  to  use  hinges  which  will  not  rust. 

The  manner  in  which  the  nest  operates  will  be  cleared  from 
an  examination  of  figures  24  and  25  which  show  a  sample  nest 
with  one  side  removed  to  show  the  inside.  A  hen  about  to  lay 
steps  up  on  the  door  and  walks  in  toward  the  dark  back  of  the 
nest.  When  she  passes  the  point  where  the  door  is  hinged  to 
the  treadle  her  weight  on  the  treadle  causes  it  to  drop.  This  at 
the  same  time  pulls  the  door  up  behind  her,  as  shown  in  figure 
25.  It  is  then  impossible  for  the  hen  to  get  out  of  the  nest  till 
the  attendant  lifts  door  and  treadle  and  resets  it.  It  will  be  seen 
that  the  nest  is  extremely  simple.  It  has  no  locks  or  triggers  to 
get  out  of  order.  Yet  by  proper  balancing  of  door  and  treadle 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION.  89 

it  can  be  so  delicately  adjusted  that  a  weight  of  less  than  half  a 
pound  on  the  treadle  will  spring  the  trap.  All  bearing  surfaces 
are  made  of  beech  because  of  the  well-known  property  of  this 


I 


FIG.  23.    Trap  nest  closed.     View  from  above. 

wood  to  take  on  a  highly  polished  surface  with  wear.  The  nests 
in  use  at  the  Maine  Station  have  the  doors  of  hard  wood,  in 
order  to  get  greater  durability.  Where  trap  nests  are  constantly 
in  use,  flimsy  construction  is  not  economical  in  the  long  run. 
For  temporary  use  the  nest  door  could  be  constructed  of  soft 
wood. 

The  trap  nests  are  not  made  with  covers  because  they  are 
used  in  tiers  and  slide  in  and  out  like  drawers.     They  can  be 


9O  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

carried  away  for  cleaning  when  necessary.  Four  nests  in  a  pen 
iccommodate  20  hens  by  the  attendant  going  through  the  pens 
>nce  an  hour,  or  a  little  oftener,  during  that  part  of  the  day 
when  the  hens  are  busiest.  Earlier  and  later  in  the  day  his  visits 
are  not  so  frequent.  The  hens  must  all  have  leg  bands  in  order 
to  identify  them;  a  number  of  different  kinds  are  on  the  market. 


FIG.  24.     Trap  nest  open.     One  side  removed  to  show  method  of  operation. 

The  double  box  with  the  nest  in  the  rear  is  necessary.  When  a 
hen  has  laid  an  egg  and  desires  to  leave  the  nest,  she  steps  out 
into  the  front  space  and  remains  there  until  she  is  released. 
With  only  one  section  she  would  be  likely  to  crush  her  egg  by 
stepping  upon  it,  and  thus  learn  the  pernicious  habit  of  egg 
eating. 

To  remove  a  hen,  the  nest  is  pulled  part  way  out,  and  as  it 
has  no  cover  she  is  readily  caught,  the  number  on  her  leg  band 
is  noted  and  the  proper  entry  made  on  the  record  sheet.  After 
having  been  taken  off  a  few  times  the  hens  do  not  object  to  be- 
ing handled,  most  of  them  remaining  quiet,  apparently  expecting 
to  be  picked  up. 

Before  commencing  the  use  of  trap  nests  it  was  thought  that 
some  hens  might  be  irritated  by  the  trapping  operation  and  ob- 
ject to  the  noise  incident  to  it,  but  such  does  not  seem  to  be 
the  case.  Trap  nests  have  been  used  at  the  Maine  Station  for 


MAINE   AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT   STATION.  9! 

Leghorns,  Brahmas,  Wyandottes,  and  Plymouth  Rocks  and  a 
number  of  other  breeds. 

The  amount  of  time  required  in  caring  for  the  trap  nests  can 
only  be  estimated,  since  the  attendant's  time  is  divided  with 
other  duties.  The  time  varies  from  one  day  to  another  and 
with  the  number  of  nests  in  use.  By  noting  the  total  time  used 
each  day  in  caring  for  the  nests  when  the  hens  were  laying  most 
heavily,  it  has  been  estimated  that  one  active  person  devoting 
his  entire  time  to  trap  nests  could  take  care  of  400  to  500  nests 
used  by  2,000  to  2,500  hens.  When  commencing  the  year's  work 
he  would  need  assistance  in  banding  the  birds,  but  after  that 


FIG.  25.  Trap  nest  closed.  One  side  removed  to  show  method  of 
operation. 

was  done  he  could  care  for  the  nests  without  assistance  until 
midsummer,  when  the  egg  yield  would  probably  be  diminished 
and  a  part  of  his  time  could  be  spared  for  other  duties. 

THE  VALUE,  METHOD  OF  PRESERVATION,  AND  ECONOMICAL  USE 
OF  HEN  MANURE. 

One  of  the  most  valuable  by-products  of  any  live-stock 
industry  is  the  manure.  Its  proper  care  and  use  is  one  of  the 
distinguishing  features  of  a  successful  stock  farm.  The  high 
nitrogen  content  of  poultry  droppings  makes  them  in  certain 


92  METHODS    OF    POUI/TRY    MANAGEMENT. 

respects  the  most  valuable  of  farm  manures.  At  the  same  time 
this  quality  necessitates  special  treatment  to  preserve  the  nitro- 
gen and  utilize  it  economically. 

According  to  experiments  carried  on  at  this  Station  some 
years  ago*  the  night  droppings  average  30  pounds  per  hen 
per  year. 

They  contain  .8  pound  of  organic  nitrogen,  .5  pound  of 
phosphoric  acid  and  .25  pound  of  potash.  At  the  present  price 
of  fertilizers  this  material  would  be  worth  about  20  cents.  No 
data  are  available  on  the  amount  of  day-voided  dung.  Since 
the  hens  spend  less  than  one-half  their  time  on  the  roosts,  and 
since  more  dung  is  voided  while  the  birds  are  exercising  than 
when  at  roost,  the  authors  estimate  that  during  a  year  probably 
45  pounds  of  dung  are  voided  by  each  bird  while  off  the  roost. 
Allowing  that  more  than  one-half  of  the  fertilizing  elements 
of  the  day  dung  are  necessarily  lost,  the  value  of  the  total 
droppings,  if  properly  cared  for,  should  be  at  least  30  cents 
per  bird  per  year. 

The  poultryman  or  farmer  who  properly  cares  for  the  drop- 
pings can  add  a  neat  further  profit  to  his  business.  For  exam- 
ple the  droppings  from  1000  birds,  if  preserved  without  need- 
less loss,  will  be  worth  at  least  $300. 

Poultry  manure  contains  more  nitrogen  than  other  farm 
manure,  because  in  birds  the  excretion  of  the  kidneys  is  voided 
in  solid  form  (uric  acid),  with  the  undigested  portions  of  the 
food.  This  form  of  nitrogen  is  easily  available  to  plants.  Un- 
fortunately, however,  it  is  not  stable.  Putrifactive  processes 
easily  change  it  to  ammonia  compounds,  and  unless  special 
care  it  taken  of  the  droppings  one-third  to  one-half  of  the 
nitrogen  passes  off  as  ammonia  gas. 

The  mechanical  condition  of  poultry  manure  is  poor.  As 
Storert  says :  "It  is  apt  to  be  sticky  when  fresh  and  lumpy 
when  dry"  On  this  account,  if  used  untreated,  it  can  only  be 
successfully  applied  to  the  land  by  hand,  as  it  does  not  work 
well  in  drills  or  spreaders.  Hen  manure  used  alone  is  very 


*Woods,  C.  D.  and  Bartlett,  J.  M.  Ann.  Kept.  Me.  Agr.  Expt.  Sta. 
1903,  pp.  199-204. 

tStorer,  F.  H.  Agriculture  in  Some  of  its  Relations  with  Chemistry. 
Chas.  Scribner's  Sons,  New  York,  1899,  Vol.  i. 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT   STATION.  93 

wasteful  of  nitrogen  as  it  carries  this  element  in  too  large  a 
proportion  to  its  phosphorus  and  potassium. 

In  the  experiments  referred  to  above  the  problem  undertaken 
by  Woods  and  Bartlett  was  the  determination  of  a  method  of 
treatment  of  hen  manure  which  would  first  prevent  the  loss  of 
nitrogen;  second,  add  sufficient  phosphorus  and  potassium  in 
forms  available  for  plant  food  to  make  a  balanced  fertilizer; 
and  third,  so  improve  the  mechanical  condition  of  the  dung  that 
it  can  be  applied  to  the  land  with  a  manure  spreader.  Seven 
different  methods  of  treatment  were  tested.  The  authors  give 
the  following  summary  of  their  results. 

"By  itself,  hen  dung  is  a  one-sided  nitrogenous  fertilizer. 
As  usually  managed,  one-half  or  more  of  its  nitrogen  is  lost, 
so  that  as  ordinarily  used  it  does  not  carry  so  great  an  excess 
of  nitrogen.  Because  of  its  excess  of  nitrogen  it  will  be  much 
more  economically  used  in  connection  with  manures  carrying 
phosphoric  acid  and  potash.  As  both  acid  phosphate  and  kainit 
prevent  the  loss  of  nitrogen,  it  is  possible  to  use  them  in  con- 
nection with  sawdust  or  some  other  dry  material  as  an  absorbent 
(good  dry  loam  or  peat  will  answer  nicely)  so  as  to  make  a 
well  balanced  fertilizer.  For  example,  a  mixture  of  30  pounds 
of  hen  manure,  10  pounds  of  sawdust,  16  pounds  of  acid  phos- 
phate, and  8  pounds  of  kainit  would  carry  about  .25  per  cent 
nitrogen,  4.5  per  cent  phosphoric  acid,  and  2  per  cent  potash, 
which,  used  at  the  rate  of  2  tons  per  acre,  would  furnish  50 
pounds  nitrogen,  185  pounds  phosphoric  acid,  and  80  pounds 
potash." 

At  the  usual  prices  of  fertilizing  ingredients  this  mixture 
is  worth  from  $10.00  to  $20.00  per  ton.  It  is  a  well  balanced, 
stable,  fertilizer  which,  while  still  not  fine  enough  to  work  well 
in  drills,  can  be  successfully  applied  with  a  manure  spreader. 

The  kind  of  absorbent  used  should  be  the  one  which  can 
be  obtained  at  least  cost,  since  the  amount  of  plant  food  added 
by  any  of  those  suggested  is  negligible,  and  since  they  are  about 
equally  effective  as  dryers  (the  slight  acidity  of  peat  gives  it 
some  advantage  as  it  helps  a  little  to  preserve  the  nitrogen). 
It  is  probably  that  one  of  the  three  can  be  obtained  by  any  poul- 
tryman  or  farmer  at  little  or  no  expense. 

The  absorbent  and  the  acid  phosphate  and  kainit  should  be 
kept  conveniently  at  hand  and  each  day  when  the  droppings 


94  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

are  collected  they  should  be  treated.  It  may  be  best  to  weigh 
the  ingredients  a  few  times,  after  which  it  will  be  possible  to 
make  sufficiently  close  estimates  by  measure. 

The  treated  droppings  should  be  well  sheltered  until  time  to 
apply  them  to  the  land,  i.  e.,  shortly  before  plowing.  Any  form 
of  shelter  may  be  used.  For  a  temporary  plant,  or  for  a  small 
farm,  a  small  wooden  building  or  a  bin  in  a  larger  building  will 
probably  be  the  best  place  practicable;  but  for  a  large,  perma- 
nent poultry  plant  a  cement  manure  shed  or  tank  is  advisable. 
A  general  farmer  also  will  find  such  an  equipment  for  the 
storage  of  all  farm  manure  a  paying  investment.  A  portion  of 
this  shed  can  be  partitioned  off  for  hen  manure. 

A  properly  constructed  cement  building  will  not  have  to  be 
constantly  repaired  and  frequently  replaced  like  a  wooden 
structure,  which  rots  out  quickly  when  used  for  the  storage  of 
manure.  The  cement  building  is  water  tight,  preventing  the 
entrance  of  water  from  without  and  the  escape  of  any  unab- 
sorbed  liquid  manure.  It  is,  in  fact,  a  perfect  permanent  shel- 
ter. 

THE  MAINE  STATION   MANURE  SHED. 

In  1912  this  Station  built  at  its  poultry  plant  a  manure  shed 
large  enough  to  accommodate  the  droppings  from  one  thousand 
adult  birds,  over  a  period  of  a  year,  and  the  droppings  collected 
from  the  range  where  about  three  thousand  chicks  are  annually 
reared. 

The  inside  measurements  of  this  shed  are  12-7  feet.  It  is 
5  feet  high  at  the  eaves  and  8  feet  2  inches  to  the  peak  of  the 
roof.  It  is  illustrated  in  figures  58  and  59. 

The  droppings  are  thrown  into  the  shed  through  trap  doors 
in  the  roof,  and  taken  out  from  one  end,  which  is  of  removable 
plank.  The  other  three  walls,  and  enough  of  this  end  wall  to 
form  the  grooves  which  hold  the  ends  of  the  planks ;  the  floor  ; 
and  the  foundation  are  formed  of  one  continuous  cement  mass 
(monolithic  construction).  The  gables  are  board.  The  gable 
at  the  open  (plank)  end  of  the  shed  is  removable  to  give  more 
head  room,  when  shoveling  the  manure  into  carts.  It  is  held 
in  place  by  hooks. 

It  was  necessary  to  place  this  building  on  a  very  heavy  clay 
soil  which  heaves  badly  with  frost.  For  this  reason  it  was 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT    STATION. 


95 


placed  on  a  much  deeper  foundation  than  would  be  necessary  in 
a  more  favorable  location.  The  foundation  is  a  solid  block  of 
cement  and  rock,  the  size  of  the  outside  measurements  of  the 
shed  and  extending  five  feet  below  the  surface  of  the  ground. 


It  was  made  by  using  as  many  rocks  and  as  little  cement  as 
was  consistent  with  the  formation  of  a  firm  solid  mass.  For  a 
few  inches  near  the  top,  however,  clear  cement  was  used  and 


96  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

this  was  smoothed  off  at  ground  level  to  form  the  floor.  At  the 
edges  of  this  foundation  the  cement  was  continued  up  into  the 
wall  forms  which  were  built  so  that  the  walls  are  ten  inches 
thick  at  the  base  and  six  at  the  top. 

An  iron  bar  ending  in  a  ring  was  set  in  the  cement  near  the 
top  of  the  wall  at  each  corner  of  the  building.  These  rings 
project  a  few  inches  from  the  end  walls.  The  roof  is  firmly 
secured  to  the  walls  by  bolts  passing  through  it  and  through 
these  rings.* 

As  stated  above  the  larger  part  of  one  end  of  the  shed  is 
plank.  The  cement  wall  is  continued  on  this  end  only  far 
enough  from  either  corner  to  provide  a  place  for  the  slot  into 
which  the  planks  are  slipped.  This  slot  is  formed  by  a  groove 
two  inches  deep  and  a  little  more  than  two  inches  wide  in  each 
end  of  the  cement  wall.  See  Figs.  26  and  27.  These  grooves 
were  formed  by  placing  angle  iron  posts  within  the  board  forms. 

This  completes  the  description  of  the  cement  work  in  the 
building. 

The  removable  end  is  of  two  inch  planks  which  are  slipped 
into  the  above  described  slot  in  the  cement  wall. 

The  plates  and  rafters  are  of  2x4  timbers.  Inch  boards  were 
used  for  roof  boards,  gables,  etc.  The  gable  on  the  plank  end 
is  removable.  It  is  held  in  position  by  hooks  and  is  provided 
with  a  handle  in  the  center. 

The  roof  is  covered  with  roofing  paper.  In  one  side  are 
two  trap  doors  also  covered  with  this  roofing.  Each  of  these 
doors  is  2  feet  4  inches  x  2  feet  10  inches  and  fits  over  a  frame 
in  the  roof  to  which  it  is  hinged  at  the  top.  The  end  of  a  lath 
is  attached  by  a  double  screweye  hinge  to  the  inside  of  each 
door  at  the  right  edge  about  half  way  from  bottom  to  top.  The 
edge  of  the  lath  is  provided  with  notches  which  hook  over  a 
nail  on  the  inside  of  the  door  frame.  When  hooked  this  lath 
holds  the  door  open.  A  2x4  strip  is  nailed  across  the  inside 
of  each  door  frame  a  little  more  than  half  way  from  bottom 
to  top.  This  serves  as  a  rest  for  the  basket  when  droppings  are 
emptied  into  the  shed. 

This  shed  is  placed  at  the  end  of  the  line  of  poultry  houses. 
The  wide  raised  walk  which  extends  along  the  entire  front  of 

*This  is  an  awkward  and  unnecessary  arrangement,  and  was  only 
used  through  a  misunderstanding  on  the  part  of  the  builder. 


MAINE    AGRICULTURAL    EXPERIMENT   STATION. 


97 


the  houses  is  continued  past  the  shed  as  a  2-foot  walk.  Between 
the  last  poultry  house  and  the  shed  the  walk  is  built  on  an 
incline  so  that  at  the  end  of  the  shed  it  is  only  i  foot  8  inches 
from  the  eaves.  This  is  a  convenient  height  from  which  to 
reach  the  doors  with  the  baskets  of  droppings. 


Fig.  27.  A.  Cross  section  of  manure  shed,  showing  dimensions  and 
plan  of  construction.  B.  Horizontal  section  of  front,  showing  planks 
in  the  grooves  in  the  cement  walls. 

The  Cost  of  the  Shed. 

Cement    $45-6o 

Gravel     20.00 

Inch    boards    I7-5O 

2x4   timber    13.00 

2  in.  plank  i  .20 

Finishings 10.00 

Roofing    8.00 

Labor     70.00 


$185.50 


98  METHODS    OF    POULTRY    MANAGEMENT. 

On  many  large  poultry  plants  little  or  nothing  is  received  for 
the  manure.  Probably  few  poultry  plants  save  more  than  one- 
half  the  fertilizing  elements  possible,  if  proper  methods  of 
treatment  and  shelter  were  used.  If  the  droppings  are  treated 
by  the  methods  described  above,  and  are  kept  properly  sheltered, 
the  saving  on  any  large  poultry  farm  would  in  i  to  3  years 
easily  equal  the  cost  of  a  permanent  shed  similar  to  the  one 
here  described. 


